Ill 




Class ^:_49_ 

Book XlX_ 

Copyright]^!' 

COPyRlGHT DEPOSIT 




Thomas Chittenden 

The first governor of Vermont 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



BY 



EDWARD DAY COLLINS, Ph.D. 

Formerly Instructor in History in 
Yale University 



WITH GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL 

NOTES, BIBLIOGRAPHY, CHRONOLOGY, 

MAPS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



BOSTON, U.S.A. 

GINN &L COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 

d)e ^tl)ensettm pregg 

* 1903 



THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two CoPtcS Received 

OCT :9 1903 



ICLAS8 A-XXc No, 

UC{ t ^ ^ 
COPY B. 



Copyright, 1903, by 
EDWARD DAY COLLINS 






ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



PREFACE 

The charm of romance surrounds the discovery, explo- 
ration, and settlement of Vermont. The early records 
of the state offer an exceptional field for the study of 
social groups placed in altogether primitive and almost 
isolated conditions ; while in political organization this 
commonwealth illustrates the development of a truly 
organic unity. The state was for fourteen years an 
independent republic, prosperous and well administered. 

This book is an attempt to portray the conditions of 
life in this state since its discovery by white men, and 
to indicate what the essential features of its social, eco- 
nomic, and political development have been. It is an 
attempt, furthermore, to do this in such a way as to 
furnish those who are placed under legal requirement 
to give instruction in the history of the state an oppor- 
tunity to comply with the spirit as well as with the letter 
of the law. 

Instruction in state history rests on a perfectly sound 
pedagogical and historical basis. It only demands that 
the same facilities be afforded in the way of texts, biblio- 
graphical aids, and statistical data, as are demanded in 
any other field of historical work, and that the most 
approved methods of study and teaching be followed. 
Indeed, in certain respects state history offers a superior 
field for instruction in the public schools. It affords 
the student an opportunity to study at first hand the 



vi PREFACE 

development of those institutions which are to demand 
the activities and interests of his maturer Hfe. These 
institutions are state rather than national. 

Furthermore, in the interplay of local and federal 
politics state history illustrates the evolution of the 
essential relations between local institutions and the 
central government. It is thus a direct preparation for 
the study of civics and national history. It certainly 
is pragmatic to acquaint students with the genesis of 
the social, economic, and political conditions in which 
they find themselves placed and forced to act ; but 
this is quite in touch with the trend of the present 
educational movement. 

The rapidly changing conception of what history 
really is appHes, of course, to this department of his- 
torical study as to any other. These green hills and 
fertile valleys would have been peopled and tilled by 
men of essentially the same fiber if Ethan Allen had 
not succeeded in his audacious attempt on Ticonderoga, 
if Stark had not won a brilliant victory at Bennington, 
or if Macdonough had not been successful in a naval 
battle off Cumberland Head. While the political des- 
tiny of the state may have been shaped to some degree 
by military events, the social and industrial organiza- 
tion within the body politic has developed essentially 
unchanged thereby. From this point of view military 
events necessarily play a relatively unimportant part, 
and industrial activities a relatively important one. 

To those who may use this book for instruction a few 
suggestions are due. Since the subject is taught to 
different grades in different schools, no attempt has been 



PREFACE vii 

made to limit the scope of the work to the requirements of 
any one grade. It has been left to the teacher to deter- 
mine in each case the possibilities of his own classes. 
The work indicated in the map exercises on page 280 
should always precede the study of the narrative. The 
source extracts at the beginning of the chapters and in 
the text illustrate the kind of material from which his- 
tory is written, and provide means for further analytical 
study. Constructive ability may best be developed by 
individual research and reports on topics of local interest. 
The statistical tables will furnish material for both ana- 
lytical and constructive work of a still different nature 
on the plan illustrated on pages 211, 212, 215, and espe- 
cially 221-223. The pupils should always be required 
to study the maps and illustrations in connection with 
the narrative. 

I wish to acknowledge a special indebtedness to Pro- 
fessor George H. Perkins for suggestions on the archae- 
ological portions of the history ; to Hon. G. G. Benedict 
for a similar service on the portions dealing with the 
military history of the state during the Civil War ; and to 
Mr. F. D. Nichols for his efforts in securing the illustra- 
tions by which the volume is so materially enriched. 

Barton Landing, E. D. COLLINS. 

Sept. 16, 1903. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Chai'Ter Page 

I. The Strength of the Hills i 

II. The French and Indian Wars .... 13 

III. The Widening Trail 38 

IV. The Debatable Land ...... 66 

V. The American Revolution 90 

VI. The Gods of the Hills iii 

VII. An Independent Republic 120 

VIII. From the Revolution to the War of 1812 . 140 

IX. The War of 1812 172 

X. From the War of 181 2 to the Civil War . 192 



XL The Civil War 



'■34 



XII. From the Civil War to the Spanish War . 255 

APPENDIX 

PART I 

GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL NOTES 

Geographical Notes: Mountains, Rivers, Lakes and Ponds, 

Counties .......... 273 

Geological Notes : Metals and Minerals and their Distribution 278 

PART II 

FOR REFERENCE AND FURTHER STUDY 

Map Exercises 280 , 

List of Maps 281 

I. Vermont at the Close of the French and Indian 

Wars facing 40 

II. Early Map of New Hampshire, soon after the Erection 

of Fort Dummer 69 

ix 



X - CONTENTS 

List of Maps — continued Page 

III, The First Political Division of Vermont ... 74 

IV. Vermont at the Close of the Revolution . facing 122 
V. Railroad Map of Vermont . . . . " 220 

VI. Geographical Map of Vermont ... " 273 

VII. Township Map of Vermont, in colors . . " 301 

Topics 282 

Bibliographical Note 286 

Chronological Table 289 

PART III 
STATISTICAL TABLES 

Table A. New York Land Grants in Vermont . . . 296 

B. Governors of Vermont ...... 297 

C. Congressional Districts and Senators in Congress . 298 

D. Population of the State by Decades from the First 

Census ........ 299 

E. Population of the State by Counties from the First 

Census . 300 

F. Population of the State by Towns in 1900 . . 301 

G. Growth of Manufactures in Vermont since 1850 . 305 
H. Farms, Acreage, and Values of Farm Property since 

1850 305 

I. Agricultural Products in 1850 306 

J. Leading Manufactures 307 

I. In 1840. 

II. In i860. 

IIL In 1870, 

IV. In 1 88a 

V. In 1890, 

VI. In 1900 

Index 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 

CHAPTER I 

THE STRENGTH OF THE HILLS 

Continuing our route along the west side of the lake, contemplat- 
ing the country, I saw on the east side very high mountains, capped 
with snow\ I asked the Indians if those parts were inhabited. They 
answered me yes, and that they were Iroquois, and there were in those 
parts beautiful valleys and fields fertile in corn as good as any I had 
eaten in the country, with an infinitude of other fruits, and that the lake 
extended close to the mountains, which were according to my judgment, 
fifteen leagues from us. — Extract from Champlairi's narrative, ibog. 

First Discoveries by White Men 

In the year 1534 Jacques Cartier, sailing under com- 
mission from the king of France, passed through the 
Strait of Belle Isle into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, pos- 
sessed of a belief that he was on the high road to Cathay. 
The Breton sailor had but little time that summer to 
make explorations before the coming of the autumn 
winds bade him seek again the shores of France. With 
the following spring, however, he returned to his quest 
and sailed far up the river in eager search for a water 
way to the East Indies through this continent. That 
way he never found, but on this trip an incident befell 
him which has some interest for us. 



2 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

In October, 1535, he came to a place on the shore of 
the river where the Indians had a settlement. It was 
then called Hochelaga ; at the same place, three fourths 
of a century later, the French laid the foundations of the 
city of Montreal. The Indians received the white men 
kindly, and during their brief stay guided them to the 
top of the mountain which rose behind their town. If 
that day was clear when Cartier looked eastward over 
the miles of frost-painted forest, he saw lying sharply 
against the sky line in the distance the pointed summit 
of Jay Peak, flanked by its domelike neighbors. Years 
were to come and go before white men drew near to the 
land of those dark hills, but when the time came they 
were countrymen of his who claimed the honor. 

It was nearly three quarters of a century later — and 
nearly three centuries ago — when Samuel de Champlain, 
servant of France in the New World, founded the city 
of Quebec. In that year, 1608, Milton was born; John 
Smith's story of the Jamestown settlement was printed 
in London; Sir Walter Raleigh lay imprisoned in the 
Tower of London writing his history of the world. The 
Pilgrims were then leaving the shores of old England for 
their brief stay in Holland before coming to the bleak 
coast of Plymouth; Henry Hudson had not then carried 
the Dutch flag into the river that bears his name ; the 
King James version of our Bible had not been finished ; 
and Shakespeare had not laid aside his pen. 

In the following year Vermont was first visited by 
white men. When the April sun had loosened the grip 
of ice and snow on lake and river the gallant Frenchman 
started on a voyage of exploration. He left Quebec, 



THE STRENGTH OF THE HILLS 3 

accompanied by a few of his own men and a party of 
Indians in their birch canoes, and set out up the river in 
a chaloupe. Where the RicheHeu empties into the St. 
Lawrence he took the smaller stream, and in June came 
to the Falls of Chambly. Here he left the chaloupe 
and went on in canoes with two of his own men and the 
Indians. On the morning of July 4, 1609, Champlain 
and his companions glided silently into the waters of 
that beautiful lake which henceforth was to bear his 
name. He wrote: 

There are many pretty islands here, low and containing very 
fine woods and meadows with abundance of fowl and such ani- 
mals of the chase as stags, fallow-deer, fawns, roebucks, bears 
and others, which go from the mainland to these islands. We 
captured a large number of these animals. There are also many 
beavers, not only in this river but also in numerous other little ones 
that flow into it. These regions, although they are pleasant, are 
not inhabited by any savages on account of their wars; but they 
withdraw as far as possible from the rivers into the interior in 
order not to be suddenly surprised. 

They paddled on past the islands, and the further 
scenes which his eyes beheld Champlain recorded in the 
words which you read at the beginning of the chapter. 

The Land and its People 

Before Champlain and his followers left the lake they 
had stained their hands with blood. It was no peaceful, 
undisputed territory into which they had so boldly come. 
It was a border land between great Indian nations, the 
hunting ground and fighting ground of Algonquins and 
Iroquois. 



4 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

South of the great lakes and eastward to the Hudson 
River and Lake Champlain Hved the Iroquois, compris- 
ing powerful tribes ; while through New England and 
the St. Lawrence region, and even to New Brunswick, 
were scattered the various Algonquin tribes. The Indi- 
ans who accompanied Champlain well knew the dangers 
of this trip, and came with him only on the under- 
standing that he would help them fight the Iroquois if 
they should chance to meet. 

They did meet, and Champlain kept his promise. The 
Iroquois fled from the deadly guns of the Europeans, — 
weapons which were new and strange to them. But they 
did not forget, and they were slow to forgive. So the 
little battle by the lakeside, in which the arquebuses of 
three white men won the day, was destined to breed 
trouble for the French in Canada in later years. It 
turned the friendship of the Iroquois away from the 
French toward the English ; it counted much in that 
long contest between the two nations which was to 
determine the destiny of this continent. 

But Champlain and his two countrymen could not 
foresee that. They sat in the red light of the camp fire 
that evening and watched their Indians tormenting the 
captives with tortures which to Christian eyes must have 
seemed strange and pitiless. 

The great basin of the Champlain and its tributaries 
furnished scenes for many such combats of which history 
has no record. The shores of the lake and the lands as 
far eastward as the mountains were not safe for perma- 
nent settlement by either of the two great rival tribes. 
Although the Indians told Champlain that the Iroquois 



THE STRENGTH OF THE HILLS 5 

dwelt in those parts, it is not likely that they were more 
than hunting grounds through which parties might rove 
in search of game without making a fixed abode. At 
any rate the Iroquois left here no name of mountain, 
lake, or river. The Indian names which are preserved 
by us are those of the Abenakis. 

The Green Mountains formed a natural barrier through 
the length of the state which red men rarely crossed 
until the days of the French and Indian wars. The 
Coosuck Indians, another branch of Algonquins, dwelt 
undisturbed on the broad flats which stretch back from 
the Connecticut River at Newbury and above — known 
to early rangers and settlers as the Cohasse intervals, or 
Coos meadows — until the white men came and drove 
them to Canada. Men now living have seen near Wells 
River the remains of an old Indian village and fort ; and 
within the memory of some the St. Francis Indians 
made periodical visits to Charleston, and pointed out to 
white settlers the seams and scars in old maples where 
their ancestors had tapped the trees in spring for their 
annual sugar making. 

Relics of the Past 

We must not think because there were no tribes in 
peaceful possession of the land when white men first 
came, that such had always been the case. There are 
traces of more than a transient residence by Indians. 
Such relics as we possess inform us of the fact of their 
occupancy, but they give no certain knowledge by which 
we can tell who those early inhabitants were. 



6 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

The following description was given in 1873 of an old 
burial place of these people. It is the only such place 
within the state of which we have any knowledge. 

About two miles north of the village of S wanton in north- 
western Vermont is a sandy ridge, which was formerly covered 
by a dense growth of Norway pines ; the thickly set, straight trees 
resembling somewhat a huge growth of hemp. The place was at 
one time called " the old hemp yard," a name which still chngs to 
it. Rather more than twelve years ago it was discovered that 
beneath this forest stone implements were buried, and further 
investigation has shown that the spot which was so covered with 
large trees and stumps when the white men first came into the 
region had been, ages before, used as a burial place by some 
people whose only records are the various objects which the affec- 
tionate care of the living placed in the graves of the dead. From 
directly beneath the largest trees or half-decayed stumps some 
of these relics were taken, so that we may feel sure that before 
the great pines which for many years, perhaps centuries, grew, 
flourished, and decayed, had germinated, these graves were dug, 
and with unknown ceremonies the bodies of the dead were placed 
in them, together with those articles that had been used during life, 
or were supposed to be needed in a future existence. We cannot 
know how many successive growths of trees may have followed 
each other since the forest began to usurp the place set apart for 
sepulture. 

We find also very many relics of more recent Indian 
life and occupancy. Along the borders of the streams 
which empty into Lake Champlain, along the higher 
lands beside them, on the shores of the lake itself, and 
on the islands, the specimens of their handiwork and arts 
have been frequently found. 

In a few instances multiplicity of domestic implements 
has indicated the site of a village or a frequently visited 




Prehistoric Implements found in Vermont 
Slate knives ; gouges or hollow chisels ; points and scrapers ; pipes. 



8 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



camping ground. One such place was near Swanton, 
where the St. Francis Indians had a village near the 
river which they had occupied from ancient times. Here, 
too, was an old burial place, four or five miles from the 
ancient graves mentioned above. The Indians had no 
knowledge of these earher graves, but knew only those 
of their own kinsmen. 

Across the lake, on a sand ridge north of Piatt sburg, 
there were kilns where pottery was burned. Here were 

scattered about clus- 
ters of burned stones, 
masses of burned clay, 
and numerous bits of 
pottery. Remains of 
old fortifications have 
been found, with many 
arrow and spear points 
near by, while on 
Grand Isle in the lake 
the remains of many 
arrow and spear points 
and unfinished articles show that once there was a manu- 
factory of them there. Less common than arrow and 
spear points are the gouges and chisels of various kinds 
of stone, some hard enough to scrape the charred embers 
from logs which were burning out for canoes, others so 
soft as to be of little use except to smooth the seams 
of deerskin garments or be used in dressing leather. 

Stone pestles and mortars for pounding corn were not 
uncommon ; while other pestles, made of slate, were 
sometimes used to crush or mash the grain by rolling 




Copper Knives and Points 




t It 

• •I 









Prehistoric Implements found in Vermont 

Ornamental jar found at Colchester ; a larger globular jar ; triangular, quadrangular, 
double and single edged axes or celts ; points ; ceremonial stones, 



lO HISTORY OF VERMONT 

it upon a flat stone or log. The slate if used in sharp 
contact with another stone would have left too much 
grit in the grain even for an Indian's taste. Stone axes 
and hatchets have been found. Fragments of soapstone 
pots and jars have been found, but only two entire jars 
are now in existence. In fact only four or five from the 
whole of New England are now known to exist. 

Other pots and jars, made of burned clay, have been 
found more plentifully. They are of various shapes and 
sizes, and some are quite remarkable. One exception- 
ally fine specimen of an ornamental jar of Indian manu- 
facture was found at Colchester, near Burlington, in 1825. 

Copper articles seem to have been rare among the 
Indians of this state. Those which have been found are 
apparently made of native copper which probably came 
from Lake Superior, beaten into the desired shape. 
They must have come here in the course of war or trade. 
Agricultural implements are also rare. Some flint or 
hornstone spades have been discovered, and some of 
these might have been attached to handles and used 
as hoes. 

In Indian ceremonials and tribal proceedings perhaps 
no single article was so important as the calumet, or pipe. 
It was indispensable in declaring war or peace, in ratify- 
ing treaties, and in the settlement of religious questions. 
Specimens of pipes have been found in the Champlain 
Valley, some of them carved and variously ornamented 
with designs of animals. 

In two places within the state the Indians left inscrip- 
tions on rocks. One of these, known as ** Indian Rock," 
is at Brattleboro, near the junction of the West and 



THE STRENGTH OF THE HILLS ii 

Connecticut rivers. It has pictured on its surface ten 
or eleven figures of birds, mammals, and snakes. The 
other inscriptions are on two granite rocks near the 
Connecticut at Bellows Falls. One of the rocks bears 
on it the rudely graven figure of a large head, some 
twenty inches long, surmounted by rays ; the other has 
twenty heads of varying sizes but all smaller than the 
one just mentioned. Some of these also have rays, and 
all are similarly made, being roughly outlined with a 
broad shallow groove, the eyes and mouth consisting in 
most cases of mere circular depressions, and the nose 
being usually omitted altogether. Various guesses have 
been made as to the meaning of these inscriptions, but 
we have little reason to suppose that they were designed 
to convey any special message. 

From these scattered relics and others that have been 
found it will be seen that although the Indians left no 
written records they did leave many things which tell us 
of their lives in war and peace. We have the measure 
of their skill in the weapons and tools which they fash- 
ioned ; and these silent witnesses to their arts and crafts 
enable us to form some idea of their degree of civilization. 
We can see how far they learned to use the gifts of nature 
as raw material for their crude workmanship. We have 
evidences of what their taste and skill in ornamentation 
were. From their tools we can gather what their highest 
attempts were in rough carpentry and agriculture. 

We know also that here in our state, when it was but 
an unnamed wilderness, were hunting grounds inhabited 
by many kinds of game in abundance. Here and there 
on the broad intervals of the larger rivers were fertile 



12 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

fields where the Indian women could raise maize and 
their few vegetables ; while the hunters roamed the forest 
for game, or sought the streams where salmon ran, the 
mountain brooks where trout were ever abundant, and 
the lakes where lay great maskinonge. 

From the skins of the deer, elk, moose, and beaver 
they could fashion their rough garments and frame some 
protection from the winter's cold. The flesh of their 
slaughtered game furnished the main part of their sus- 
tenance ; and thus through the changing seasons they 
lived, halfway between the hunting stage and the agri- 
cultural stage, depending on Nature's bounty, till the 
white men came. 



CHAPTER II 

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 

Voted, That it will be of great service to all the western frontiers, 
both in this and the neighboring government of Connecticut, to build 
a Block House above Northfield, in the most convenient place on the 
lands call'd the Equivalent Lands,i and to post in it forty able men, 
English and Western Indians, to be employed in scouting at a good 
distance up the Connecticut River, West River, Otter Creek, and some- 
times eastwardly, above great Monadnuck, for the discovery of the 
enemy coming towards any of the frontier towns. — Massachusetts Court 
Records, Dec. sj, 1^28. 

Colonial Politics 

It was not very many years after the French had 
estabUshed settlements in the St. Lawrence Valley, at 
Quebec and Montreal, before English settlers sought 
homes on the rocky New England coast, and the Dutch 
sat down to trade on the island of Manhattan, in that 

1 The " equivalent lands " were tracts lying in the southern part of 
the present state of Vermont which were given by Massachusetts to 
Connecticut, to take the place of some Connecticut land which Mass- 
achusetts had by mistake been granting. Boundaries were a little 
uncertain in early days, and when in 171 3 they were determined, it 
was found that Massachusetts had granted 107,793 acres which did not 
belong to her. But since she very naturally wished to retain the juris- 
diction over the settlers, it was arranged that Connecticut should accept 
an equal number of acres in ungranted territory. They were called for 
this reason the " equivalent lands." Connecticut sold them at public 
auction, at Hartford, in 1716, for ;i^683, New England currency. The 
money thus obtained was donated to Yale College, then a young 
institution of learning. The lands were bought by gentlemen from 
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and London. 

13 



14 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

wonderful harbor which is the glory of all true New 
Yorkers. So it came to pass that three great powers 
of the Old World found themselves neighbors in the 
New World also. From the time when they opened 
their eyes to this fact they began a struggle for the 
possession of this part of our continent. The Dutch 
did not struggle long, for in the year 1664 an English 
squadron sailed into the harbor and compelled the crusty 
old Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant, to yield the 
city. Its name was then changed from New Amster- 
dam to New York, in honor of the king's brother, the 
Duke of York. 

News like this made the French settlers in Canada 
and the French government in France more anxious 
than ever to curb the growing power of the English 
here in America. And the English, as they heard how 
the French were finding their way far up the rivers 
and even beyond the great lakes, grew more and more 
anxious to curb the growing power of the French. One 
could say that it became the poHcy of the French to 
drive the English from America, and the policy of the 
English to drive out the French. This was the great 
theme of colonial politics. Instead of taking sides for 
candidates and talking about the men who wanted to be 
president or governor, the English in America all took 
sides against the French, saying to themselves, '< We 
must drive them out of Canada." This was as accurate 
an expression of their political creed as modern party 
platforms are of ours to-day. 

When two great nations hold such utterly contradic- 
tory notions about the same thing it does not require 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 15 

a prophet to foresee trouble. Of course so long as 
the French remained quietly in Canada and the English 
remained quietly in New England, with a great stretch 
of uninhabited country between them, they could not 
enter on this great and necessary work of driving each 
other out. So it came to pass that in their attempts to 
get rid of each other the colonists of the two nations 
and their allies crossed and recrossed this intervening 
territory in a long series of raids and forays which have 
gone down in history as the French and Indian wars. 

This is the real meaning of those wars : the French 
and English were trying to oust each other from the land. 
What especially concerns us is the fact that a ver)^ 
important part of this country through which they made 
their bloody trails was the land which came in after 
years to be our state of Vermont. 

The French, the English, and the Lndians 

It would be well if we could remember how very 
differently the French and EngHsh colonists went about 
their work of gaining a foothold in the New World. It 
would help to explain many things. It would tell us 
why their interests clashed and why they hated each 
other so ; why the French pushed so rapidly through 
leagues of forest and stream, while the English clung 
close to the coasts ; why the Indians hated the English 
and clove to the French and so helped them in these 
savage wars. 

While the English cut away the forests to make clear- 
ings for their little homes and farms which they could 
till, the French went here and there through uncut 



l6 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

forests, trading with the Indians for furs. In conse- 
quence of this, while the English were confined to little 
settlements along the shores and near the mouths of 
the larger streams, the French had made their way 
along the St. Lawrence River, through the great lakes, 
northward, far, far up the rivers into the heart of the 
Hudson Bay country, and southward back of the line 
of English colonies which stretched like a narrow fringe 
along the Atlantic coast. 

As for the Indians, they looked upon the English 
clearing away the forest and destroying the old hunt- 
ing grounds, and they knew that although the settle- 
ments at first were small and the settlers ready to be 
friendly, the time would surely come when the settlements 
would be large and the white men their enemies. The 
French, on the contrary, destroyed no hunting grounds. 
Their fur trade depended on the hunting grounds. They 
came, too, and dwelt like brothers among the Indians and 
ranged the forests with them, sharing their hardships. 
In fact, sometimes they were brothers, for they took 
dusky Indian maidens to wife. They built a fort here 
or established a trading post there ; but these served 
the Indians as well as the French, and were primarily 
headquarters for trade, at which only a white man or two 
would be found in sole charge for weeks and months at 
a time. 

There was another cause of friendship between the 
Indians and the French. Jesuit missionaries went in 
hardship and suffering establishing missions among the 
different tribes, converting them and winning them to 
the faith and the friendship of their countrymen. Many 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 1/ 

records and letters were left by these Jesuits, which are 
now called the Jesuit Relations. These are to-day the 
most important and valuable sources of knowledge which 
we have of these Indian tribes at the time when the 
white men first came among them. 

When we thoroughly understand the French method 
of occupying Canada, we have discovered something 
which has a direct bearing on the conduct of the French 
and Indian wars. For example, we see that in all the 
long line of their widely scattered trading posts, in all 
the broad expanse of territory which the French held 
in name, there were really in Canada but two towns of 
great importance, Quebec and Montreal. We see that 
the English colonists, if they wished to harm the French, 
must prepare expeditions large enough and strong enough 
to take these two fortresses, the bulwarks of the French 
occupation of Canada. To do this they must have ships 
and cannon as well as men. On the other hand it was 
quite an easy matter for a French commander at Mont- 
real to send out day after day little bands of Indians 
through that great forest which stretched toward the 
English settlements, to fall upon the scattered and almost 
defenseless cabins on the frontier. Those cabins were 
not mere trading posts ; they were homes in which were 
women and the precious children, treasures dearer than 
furs, more precious than life itself. 

The Indian Trails 

These raids of marauding bands of Indians and French 
will have more than a passing interest for us when we 
recall that the main routes which were traversed lay 



l8 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

across our state, although it was long before that state 
was settled or bore a name. There were some four 
or five of these routes which we ought to remember, 
and to do so will not be difficult if we trace them on 
the map. 

If we bear in mind the starting points, the destination, 
and the principal water courses which lay between, we 
shall be guided, as the Indians were, by the natural 
features of the country into the easiest and for that 
reason the most frequented routes. The French were 
at Montreal ; the English settlers were east of the Con- 
necticut River or along its lower waters. That river 
furnished war parties with a great highway in summer 
or winter into the heart of the enemy's country. 

The first route to be named lay across the north- 
western corner of the state. A party would follow 
this route by coming up the St. Francis River to Lake 
Memphremagog and leaving the lake through the Clyde 
River. That would take them to Island Pond, from 
which they could make a short carry to the Nulhegan 
and be guided to the more northern stretches of the 
Connecticut. 

If our war party wished to reach a point on the 
river a little farther south, it would leave Lake Mem- 
phremagog by way of the Barton River, following it to 
Crystal Lake, and thence going up over the height of 
land where the springs lie close together that empty 
north and south, and follow down the valley of the lit- 
tle brook that leads, ever widening, to the Passumpsic, 
which in turn would take them to the Connecticut near 
the Cohasse intervals. 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 19 

But there were easier and quicker routes than these, 
especially for large parties coming from Montreal. Just 
as a great river stretched along the eastern border, so 
a great lake lay on the western border of the state and 
offered them miles of easy travel by canoe instead of 
tedious marches overland through the forest. So the 
Lake Champlain routes were more often used than those 
which led through Lake Memphremagog. 

There were three of these Champlain routes : one 
leading across the state by way of the Winooski River, 
one by the Otter Creek, and one by the Pawlet River. 
Coming to the lake by the ancient way which Champlain 
had followed, a party could turn in at the Winooski, 
follow the stream up through the mountains, cross from 
its upper waters to those of the White River, and follow 
that till it joined the Connecticut at the place where 
White River Junction now stands. It was along this 
route that Rouville led his band of French and Indians 
in their murderous raid on Deerfield in 1 704 ; hither 
part of the company retraced their steps, leading along 
the icebound streams through the snows of February 
the half-clad and half-starved captives who had escaped 
massacre. We cannot wonder that the settlers long 
called the Winooski ''the French River." 

Still another route there was, by way of the Otter 
Creek. Where it becomes a swift mountain stream 
the Indians would leave it, cross by trail the height of 
land, and going down on the east side of the hills, follow 
either the Black River or West River, as they chose, to 
the Connecticut. This was an easy route and came to be 
much used, so that it was known as "the Indian road.'' 



20 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

It was nearest to Crown Point on the Champlain side ; 
and when the French had been driven away, and the 
wars had ceased, the settlers took it up and made it 
the basis of one of their first roads through the woods, 
from Number Four to Crown Point. 

The last of these routes, that one which followed 
the Pawlet River, was of less importance. It began at 
the head of the lake, and after reaching that point on the 
river where the crossing was easiest over the summit, 
led to West River on the eastern side of the mountains. 
In all these routes the eastern highway of the raiding 
parties was the Connecticut River. As Lake Champlain 
was the great water way on the west, so this long, quiet 
stream lay at their service east of the mountains, whether 
it were open for canoes in the pleasant warmth of sum- 
mer months or locked in ice in winter, secure and solid 
beneath the tread of moccasined feet. 

Indian Raids 

As a general statement one might say that from 1689 
to 1763 the border settlements on the Connecticut and 
Merrimac rivers were never safe from the ravages of 
scouting parties harassing the frontier. If you should 
chance to run across the memoranda of a certain French 
officer at Montreal in 1746, you would read a record 
made day after day of parties of Indians sent out to 
** strike a blow " at the English, now in this direction, 
now in that, but especially "towards Boston." You 
would read also records of the scalps brought back, until 
you sickened at the thought of it, and wondered no 
longer that the very name of the French was hated in 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 21 

New England, and that settlers lived in daily dread of 
the sound of the war whoop and the sight of a brandished 
tomahawk. You will recall, too, that when Rogers's 
rangers destroyed the village of St. Francis they found 
hundreds of English scalps hanging at the doors of the 
lodges. 

In all the long series of conflicts which go to make up 
the French and Indian wars, probably no single attack 
came with so sudden a shock or has been retold more 
times than that famous raid on the village of Deerfield, 
Massachusetts, made in the winter of 1704 by Hertel de 
Rouville and his band of two hundred French and one 
hundred and forty-two Indians. Coming by the Winooski 
trail, under the snow-laden branches of the forest, they 
passed down the Connecticut River on the ice and 
reached Deerfield on the evening of the 28th of Febru- 
ary. Recently fallen snows had drifted high against the 
palisade of the village at the northeast corner. When 
the watchman left his post in the early hours of morning, 
little dreaming that an enemy lay shivering under the 
pines two miles north of the village, the settlement was 
helplessly at the mercy of the raiders. Climbing over 
the palisade on the crusted snow, they scattered through 
the town and were soon ready to begin their work of mur- 
der. It was quickly over. Forty-seven of the inhabitants 
were slain, the village was set on fire, and when the sun 
was an hour high the march to Canada had begun. 

On the night of the fourth day of the march the party 
stopped near the site of Brattleboro and built light 
sledges on which to carry the children, the sick, and the 
wounded. The march was then renewed, and was rapid 



22 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

over the ice of the river. At the mouth of the White 
River, Rouville divided his party. One division went by 
the White River, crossed the highlands, and took the 
Winooski trail. On coming to the lake they turned 
aside to rest a few days at the Indian village near 
Swanton ; then they went on to Montreal. The other 
division kept on up the Connecticut till they came to 
the great meadows at Newbury, — the Cohasse intervals, 
— where, half-starved, they stopped till corn-planting 
time. They lived meantime on game, but they dared 
not stay for the harvest of corn, fearing the vengeance 
of the English. 

The First White Occupancy 

The success of the Deerfield raid encouraged many 
more, and for some years the frontiers of the New 
England provinces were one continuous scene of merci- 
less pillage. So it is no wonder that the General Court 
of Massachusetts passed the vote which stands at the 
beginning of the chapter. The torment of Indians on 
the frontier and the necessity of building such outposts 
for defense explain why the first inhabitants of the state 
were not settlers who had come to hew homes from 
the forest, but garrisons at these blockhouses or forts, 
guarding the frontier on the edge of the wilderness. 

The blockhouse which was built above Northfield by 
the order of the General Court of Massachusetts was by 
no means the first of its kind within the state. Up in 
the northwest corner, on an island in Lake Champlain, 
the French had done the same thing years before. It 
happened in this way. Monsieur de Tracy, who was 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 23 

then governor of New France, as the French possessions 
in Canada were called, began in 1664 a line of fortifica- 
tions from the mouth of the Richelieu River to Lake 
Champlain. During the first year he built three forts 
along the river, and in the next spring he ordered Captain 
de La Motte to proceed up the lake and build a fort on 
an island. He did so that same year and called the fort 
St. Anne ; but that name was later changed to La Motte 
after the builder's name. Long after the fort crumbled 
to decay the island bore the name of the French captain 
and bears it to this day. That is how the French first 
built in Vermont and why one of the islands in Grand 
Isle County is called Isle La Motte. 

For a long time the French held this fort as a garrison ; 
the island they dwelt upon for nearly a hundred years. 
From this fort the French soldiers and their allies of 
Indians hunted deer and elk and sent out expeditions 
against the Mohawks. Many years after, at Colchester 
Point, which would be about a day's journey by canoe 
from St. Anne, our early settlers found the remains of 
an old chimney bottom and a wall. Near by there grew 
some very old red and white currant bushes ; and on the 
beach by the lake they picked up a number of curious 
old things, — Indian arrows, leaden balls, scraps of iron, 
pieces of silver and copper coins, bones of animals, and 
the remains of two human skeletons which had washed 
out from the neighboring banks at high water. Such 
evidences make it appear very probable that there was 
once a French settlement at Colchester Point, made 
perhaps in connection with the garrisoned fortress of 
St. Anne. 



24 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

The advancing operations of the French in that quarter 
did not come as welcome tidings to the English ; and 
New York authorities sent some officers and men with a 
few Mohawk Indians to look into affairs about the lake 
and see what it all meant. So we find that in early 
spring in 1690 a certain Captain de Warm was in the 
country on the west side of the lake with about seven- 
teen white men and twenty Indians, acting on orders 
from the New York authorities at Albany. We find, 
too, that another captain, Abraham Schuyler by name, 
was ordered to go to the mouth of the Otter Creek and 
there "to watch day and night for one month, and daily 
communicate with Captain de Warm." 

De Warm meantime crossed to the eastern side of the 
lake and built a little stone fort at Chimney Point in 
Addison. When in August of the same year Captain 
Schuyler led the first English war party that ever passed 
through the lake, they stopped at the little stone fort 
and near there killed two elk. But the English did not 
keep up the occupancy of it, and in 1731 the French 
came down and made a settlement there. 

We now see that the first three places in Vermont to 
be occupied for any length of time by white people were 
military outposts built by the French and the English. 
With the possible exception of the French settlements, 
whose extent we do not know, there was no colonization 
attempted at these posts. They were establishments 
from which scouting parties might range the country, 
keep a watchful eye on the operations of the enemy, and 
in cases of emergency meet for defense. They were 
also what the English and French governments would 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 25 

have called "marks of possession," had they been trying 
to agree on a boundary line instead of trying to drive 
each other out ; but such marks of possession, as you 
may have noticed, amount to but very little when two 
countries are fighting for the same thing, because the 
stronger can always take it and usually does. 

There is, however, an observation about these posts 
which is of some significance. That is, that the English 
and the French were creeping nearer to each other in 
this country and getting ready to spring at each other's 
throat ; that both were very evidently possessed of a 
growing determination in their policy; that just as fast 
as they grew strong they would use their strength 
against each other. From what we have now learned it 
would not require much wisdom to conjecture that these 
two nations would never inhabit this country together 
in peace, but that sooner or later one of them would be 
whipped from its shores. 

The old fortress of St. Anne crumbled to decay, and 
the walls of the little stone fort at Chimney Point fell 
into ruins, but the blockhouse at Fort Dummer lasted 
on. The English occupancy about it never ceased, so 
we will turn back once more to that. 

The blockhouse was begun in F'ebruary next after 
the vote of the General Court. Colonel John Stoddard 
of Northampton had the general supervision of the work, 
and he sent up " four carpenters, twelve soldiers with 
narrow axes, and two teams," under T. D wight, to build 
it. It is said that **the soldiers slept in the woods and 
earned two shillings per diem besides their stated pay. 
The horses worked hard, eat oats and nothing else." 



26 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



The carpenters from Northfield received five shillings a 
day, except John Crowfoot, — who was not a Northfield 
carpenter at all, but a Springfield Indian, — and he 
received six shillings. 








M^jr Will 
ards hcui,e 


^ 


Proy/ince a 


■C "r- 


Cdnnon 

mounted 
in it 



Built ■sttl the ouT ^i"| £ 30 ^i. 

S,cle b] y^ Province 



The Perade 
The Phisoqnomy of fort Dumer 



CollVWi (lards 
hou-ie Buitt by 







The Phisognomy of Fort Dumer 



They all must have worked pretty hard, for by the 
time the maples and birches were in full leaf and sum- 
mer showed her fresh green in the clearing the fort was 
ready to be occupied. It was named Fort Dummer, in 




FuRT DUMMEK 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 2/ 

honor of the man who was Heutenant governor of Massa- 
chusetts. It was a right good fort, built for the busi- 
ness it would have 
to face, and was 
pitched on the west 
bank of the Con- 
necticut, in the 
southeast corner of 
the present town of 
Brattleboro, on the 
Dummer meadows. 

It was stoutly built of the yellow pines that grew 
close at hand and was made nearly one hundred and 
eighty feet square. Houses were built inside the inclo- 
sure with their backs to the wall of the fort and facing 
the hollow square or parade ground in the center. 
If the enemy broke through the gates or scaled the 
walls, as they had done at Deerfield, the garrison could 
barricade themselves in the houses and fire upon the 
foe in the hollow square. 

Scouting Parties 

During the unsafe and troubled times which followed 
for many years we could not expect to find settlers 
building homes in the wilderness. That was a task all 
too hard in the most favorable times ; it could not be 
thought of when the woods were full of scouting parties 
of New France ready to destroy the growing crops, to 
plunder and ruin the homes, burn the little cabins, take 
prisoners the inmates and carry them as captives to 
Canada, or strike the murderous blow if they were too 



28 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

feeble to endure the terrible march of two hundred 
miles through the wilderness. 

From these forts, therefore, or outposts like the 
blockhouse on the Dummer meadows, we may only 
expect to find that scouting parties go out and return, 
making the fort their headquarters at which to receive 
their orders, report their trips, and equip themselves 
for tiresome tramps through the forests and along the 
streams. The extracts from Captain Kellogg' s journal 
show that such scouting parties began to range the 
country promptly in the fall of the same year that 
Fort Dummer was built. 

I have sent out [the record runs] several scouts, an account 
of which I here present. 

The first on November 30, we went on ye ^ west side of 
Connecticut River and crossing ye West River went up to ye 
Great Falls and returned, making no discovery of any Enemy. 
[The great falls mentioned here are the Bellows Falls of to-day.] 

The next scout went up ye West River 6 miles, and then 
crossed ye wood up to ye Great Falls, and returned making no 
discovery of any new signs of an enemy. 

The next scout I sent out west from Northfield about 12 
miles and from thence northward, crossing West River thro ye 
woods ; then steering east, they came to ye Canoo place about 
16 or 17 miles above Northfield. 

The next scout I sent out northwest about 6 miles, and then 
they steered north until they crossed West River, and so thro ye 
woods to ye Great Meadows below ye Great Falls, then they 
crossed Connecticut River and came down on ye East side untill 
they came to Northfield without any new discovery, this Meadow 
being about 32 miles from Northfield. 

1 The old formJ^',? is the same as the and so pronounced, the t \\\ ye. 
being the obsolete form of th. 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 29 

The next scout I sent up ye West River Mountain, and there 
to Lodge on ye top and view Evening and Morning for smoaks, 
and from thence up to ye mountain at ye Great Falls and there 
also to Lodge on ye top and view morning and evening for smoaks ; 
but these making no discovery returned. 

The next scout I sent up ye West River 5 miles and then 
north till they came upon Sexton's River, 6 miles from ye mouth 
of it, wc empties itself at ye foot of ye Great Falls, and then they 
came down till they came to ye mouth of it, and so returned, but 
made no discovery of any enemy. 

So the purpose of the fort was served, and the settle- 
ments rested a little more easily in the knowledge that 
if Indians did come there were now up at Fort Dummer 
stanch men keeping watch by night and day, scanning 
with keen eyes the pathless forest ; and they knew that 
it would be a small band indeed that could slip past 
undiscovered and not have the great gun of the fort 
send its warning echoes booming through the woods. 

Of the tale of war and politics which kept both French 
and English in a turmoil until that memorable day upon 
the Plains of Abraham, we can tell but little here. But 
we may note that over in the Champlain Valley the border 
fights went on until boys grew to be men ; and all along 
the shores of the lake, and among the streams, and 
through the neighboring hills, scouting parties toiled at 
t?ie same tasks as those we have seen busying the men 
at Fort Dummer. 

The Tide Turns 

The operations in the Champlain Valley finally resulted 
in the abandonment of Ticonderoga, Fort Frederick, and 
Chimney Point by the French and the withdrawal to 



30 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

Canada of garrisons and settlers in 1759. This evacua- 
tion of the country west of the Green Mountains brought 
a sense of reHef to the frontiers of New England as well 
as to those of New York, because if it did not remove 
the source of depredations entirely, it put into friendly 
hands possession of the channel through which some 
of them had come. Furthermore, it left the Enghsh 
rangers free to begin a more aggressive work in exter- 
minating their foe; and in the fall of 1759 an expedition 
was made for this purpose which certainly is entitled to 
a place in Vermont history. 

The leaves were beginning to change color and the 
wild fowl to think of their southern homes, when Robert 
Rogers led a party of rangers through the woods and 
swamps of Canada to destroy the Indian village of 
St. Francis. This village lay about halfway between 
Montreal and Quebec, some three miles back from the 
St. Lawrence River. Here dwelt that tribe of Indians 
which for three quarters of a century had been the 
scourge of the New England border. 

Setting out from Crown Point in whaleboats, the party 
managed to escape the French vessels which were still 
in armed activity on the lake, and coming to Missis- 
quoi Bay, at the north end of the lake, they hid their 
boats and some provisions there. Then they started on 
their long march across country, through tangled swamps 
and untrodden ways. Within two days friendly Indians 
overtook Rogers with the news that his boats had been 
discovered by the French. The party was said to num- 
ber four hundred men, and half of them were on his 
track. Rogers did not turn from his purpose. He 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 31 

determined to outfoot his pursuers, destroy the village 
as he had planned, and escape by pushing on through 
the woods to the Connecticut River, instead of return- 
ing to Crown Point. He sent word to Crown Point 
to have provisions brought up the Connecticut River to 
the upper Ammonoosuc, to which it was hoped he might 
bring his party safely through. 

Rogers's own account of this expedition was published 
over one hundred and thirty years ago, in London, and 
from the musty pages of the old book we can catch a 
glimpse or two of the story. 

The 22d. day after my departure from Crown Point, I came 
in sight of the Indian town St. Francis, in the evening, which I 
discovered from a tree that I climbed, at about three miles dis- 
tance. ... At half an hour before sunrise I surprised the town 
when they were all fast asleep, on the right, left and center, which 
was done with so much alacrity by both officers and men, that the 
enemy had not time to recover themselves or take arms for their 
own defence. ... A little after sunrise I set fire to all their 
houses, except three, in which there was corn, that I reserved for 
the use of the party. About seven o'clock in the morning the 
affair was completely over, in which time we had killed at least 200 
Indians and taken 20 of their women and children prisoners, 15 of 
whom I let go their own way, and five I brought with me, viz. two 
Indian boys and three Indian girls. I Hkewise retook five English 
captives which I also took under my care. When I had paraded 
my detachment I found I had Capt. Ogden badly wounded. . . . 
I also had six men slightly wounded and one Stockbridge Indian 
killed. 

The hardest part of his task was yet before him. He 
was in the enemy's country, and all hope of return by 
the way he had come was cut off. His one chance lay 
in getting through to the Connecticut, and pursuers were 



32 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

hot on his trail. After much hardship he reached Lake 
Memphremagog, but he dared not try to hold the party- 
together any longer. The supply of corn had failed. In 
order to enable them more easily to sustain themselves 
on such rough fare as the forest offered, he divided the 
company there east of the lake and told the detachments 
to assemble at the Ammonoosuc, if they could reach it. 
Then they parted, taking different routes. Some were 
captured by the pursuing Indians ; some were killed ; 
some sick and starving staggered through to the Con- 
necticut River. His own party turned southward, on 
the east side of the lake, followed the Barton River to 
Crystal Lake, and went on over the summit into the 
Passumpsic Valley. 

Meantime men with two canoes laden with provisions 
had made their way up the Connecticut River from 
Charlestown, New Hampshire, then known as Number 
Four, had come to Round Island near the mouth of the 
Passumpsic and camped there. On the second morning, 
fearing that an Indian party was in the neighborhood, 
they left the island and went back down the river, tak- 
ing the provisions with them. At that moment, but a 
few miles up the Passumpsic, Rogers and his few fam- 
ished stragglers were coming through the woods. They 
came to the Connecticut about noon of the same day 
and saw the smoke of the still smoldering fires of the 
relief party on the island. Signal guns were fired. The 
relief party heard them and hurried away down the river 
faster than ever. Making his way across to the island 
as best he could, Rogers found there only the smoking 
embers. 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 33 

"It is hardly possible," wrote he, "to describe the 
grief and consternation of those of us who came to the 
Cohasse Intervals. Upon our arrival there after so many 
days' tedious march, over steep and rocky mountains, or 
through wet, dirty swamps, with the terrible attendants 
of fatigue and hunger, we found that here was no relief 
for us, where we had encouraged ourselves that we 
should find it." He continues: "At length I came to 
a resolution to push as fast as possible towards Number 
Four, leaving the remains of my party now unable to 
march further to get such wretched subsistence as the 
barren wilderness could afford." With Captain Ogden, a 
ranger, and an Indian boy, Rogers set out on a raft made 
of dry pines, and "after being once wrecked and under- 
going further disasters, at length reached the settle- 
ments more dead than alive, and sent back help to those 
of his comrades who were still living. 

A few years before this a young man by the name 
of John Stark, of whom we shall hear more later, w^as 
captured by Indians while out hunting in the woods on 
the New Hampshire side of the Connecticut and was 
taken with his brother and two companions to Canada by 
much the same route that these half-starved wanderers 
of Rogers's party traversed. They went up the Connect- 
icut, across to Lake Memphremagog, and thence into 
Canada. Stark showed so much bravery and spirit that 
he became a favorite with his captors and was treated 
kindly. 

Between the time of Stark's capture and the great 
blow which Rogers struck at Indian power the settlers 
of New England carried on a more or less persistent and 



34 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

systematic warfare against the Indians. The government 
of Massachusetts offered a reward for every Indian killed 
or captured ; and ranging parties scoured the woods 
between the Connecticut and Hudson rivers, and as far 
north as Black River. 

Companies of thirty or more men would take their 
course through the woods, marching either in divisions 
or by one common route through thickly wooded up- 
lands, over jagged hills and steep mountains, across 
foaming rivers or beside gravel-bedded brooks. They 
adopted the Indian mode of warfare and beat the Indi- 
ans at it. Nerve, capacity for endurance, courage, and 
unfailing marksmanship were trained in those days of 
forest ranging. What better stuff for peopling this 
state, for battling with the forests, and for building up 
the homes, could there be than the men who had thus 
wrenched it from the savagery of border wars and gained 
their schooling at the hands of Nature ? 

Spying out the Land 

From such accounts as Rogers left and from the pages 
of Colonel Kellogg's journal we can see one thing very 
clearly. If men were not settling in the wilderness, they 
were at least finding out a great deal about it, so that 
when days of peace and quiet should come men would 
know where it was good to go and settle. The work of 
the rangers was something like that of the spies whom 
Moses sent to search the land of Canaan before the 
children of Israel went into it. 

Perhaps this is the best service of the scouting parties. 
They did not harm the French much; they did not harm 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 35 

the Indians much; they alarmed them; and they helped 
a little in the work of carrying out the great English 
policy : but the great fact is, they made known the land. 
It would be a mistake to suppose that our colonists 
settled this affair between England and France. It was 
not fought out altogether in the New World; and what 
the rangers did toward it in the Green Mountains we 
can dismiss with few words. But we do need to think a 
great deal about this work of theirs in finding what the 
land truly was ; for behind every homestead that was 
ever taken up and carved out of this wilderness there lay 
a good and sufficient reason, and we cannot understand 
the history of our state unless we think of these things. 

Many of the names given in these records are the 
same that we use to-day for the same streams and 
places. You could follow many of the courses which 
the rangers took, as the historian Parkman when a 
college student tramped over the route of Rogers, from 
Lake Memphremagog to the Connecticut River. 

Think how much could be learned on those swift, 
silent forest trips, — where the timber lay, and all the 
different kinds which grew, maple, birch, beech, oak, 
ash, cedar, spruce, hemlock, pines, and all the rest. 
Very many pines there were in those days, and noble 
ones too, so noble that the king of England said that 
they must be marked and saved for masts and spars to 
go in his royal navy. Then, too, from the tops of the 
mountains, where parties lay whiling away the hours 
watching for ''smoaks" of Indian camp fires, many 
things besides smokes would be seen. You could not 
help seeing them, watching so sharply in all directions 



36 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

for smokes, — the contour of the land, for mstance ; the 
courses of streams through the valleys ; and here and 
there a bit of interval or stretch of beaver meadow, 
where a settler could cut the first hay for his cattle to 
last through the winter before his own land was cleared. 

On those long journeys what woodcraft secrets would 
the forest farer learn ! What little joys of discovery 
would come to him every hour of the day ! He would 
learn where the deer yarded on the mountain, or browsed 
in the timber, or came down to the water in favorite 
runways. He would find which slopes the moose loved 
best. He would note the track of the bear and the 
curious work of the beaver. He would learn how far up 
the streams the salmon ran to their spawning beds ; he 
would learn where the trout were always plentiful ; and 
he would never forget where the water, choking up in 
a narrow channel and leaping over the rocks, would let 
a settler build the first mill to saw logs or grind grain. 

When the corn that was planted at the fort had 
ripened in the summer's sun, and the grass had turned 
sere and brown on the marshes, and crimson and gold 
leaves were carpeting the forest, then it was time to 
think of the fall hunt. Then deer were fat and sleek 
and venison was sweetest. Then the tongue and steak 
of Bruin replenished the larder. The crackling fires 
of winter must be provided for and many a sturdy oak, 
maple, and birch laid low for the blaze of the great 
fireplace. When of an evening the men recounted 
their tales around the hearth, what wonder that the 
passion of the wilderness grew upon them ! What 
wonder that when peace came and they were free at 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 37 

last from their enemy, the voices of the forest called 
them back to claim as their own the wilderness from 
which they had driven their foe ! It was theirs now, 
this wilderness teeming with game, these lands where 
the Indian had hunted, these streams where he had 
fished. It was the white man's now, to enter in and 
possess. 



CHAPTER III 

THE WIDENING TRAIL 

RvEGATE, Feb. 7, 1774. 
We have now built a house and Hve very comfortably though we 
are not much troubled with our neighbors. ... In the township above 
us (Barnet) there are about fifteen families, and in the township below 
(Newbury) about sixty. . . . There are some settlers sixty miles beyond 
us on the river. There are no settlers to the west of us till you come 
to Lake Champlain. There is a road now begun to be cut from Con- 
necticut River to the lake, which goes through the middle of our pur- 
chase, and is reasoned to be a considerable advantage to us, as it will 
be the chief post road to Canada. . . . We have a grist mill within 
six miles of us, and a saw-mill within two and a half. We know 
nothing of the hardship of settling a new place, for the first settlers in 
the town below, only ten years ago, had not a neighbor nearer than 
sixty miles, and the nearest mill was one hundred and twenty miles 
down the river. The people here are hospitable, social, and decent. 
One thing I know, that here they are very strict in keeping the 
Sabbath. — Extracts from a letter of General Whitelaw to his father 
in Scotland. 

Roads in the Woods 

The military operations during the latter part of the 
French and Indian wars served another purpose than 
that of a training school for settlers. They opened up 
better roadways than the dim trails of the Indians or 
the blazed paths of white men. Rude roads they would 
seem to this age of graded highways, railroads, elec- 
tric trolleys, and pneumatic tires ; even in old stage- 
coach days, when wagon springs were rarer and leather 
thorough-braces were a luxury, they would have seemed 
poor ; but they were first steps, and we must not overlook 
them or deem them of slight importance. 

38 



THE WIDENING TRAIL 



39 



The course of the old Indian road was first made 
public by the diary of a traveler who passed o\'er it 
from Fort Dummer to Lake Champlain in 1730. The 
government of Massachusetts wanted to ascertain the 
exact course of this Indian thoroughfare, and obtained 
from James Cross the diary of his journal for this pur- 
pose. It runs as follows : 

Monday, ye 27th. April, 1730, at about twelve of ye clock 
we left Fort Dummer, and travailed that day three miles, and 
lay down that night by West River, which is three miles distant 
from Fort Dummer. Notabene. I travailed with twelve Canady 
Mohawks that drank to great excess at ye fort and killed a Scata- 
cook Indian in their drunken condition, that came to smoke with 
them. 

Tuesday. We travailed upon the great River ^ ahout ten miles. 

Wednesday, We kept up ye same course upon ye great River, 
travailed about ten miles, and eat a drowned Buck that night. 

Thursday. We travailed upon the great River within two 
miles of ye Great Falls "-^ in said River, then we went upon Land 
to the Black River above ye Great Falls, went up in that River 
and lodged about a mile and a half from the mouth of Black 
River, which day's travail we judged was about ten miles. 

Fryday. We cross Black River at ye Falls,^ afterwards trav- 
ail through ye woods N.N.W., then cross Black River again about 
17 miles above our first crossing, afterwards travailed ye same 
course, and pitched our tent upon ye homeward side of Black River. 

Saturday. W^e crossed Black River, left a great mountain on 
ye right hand and another on ye left.^ Keep a N.W. course till 
we pitch our tent after 1 1 miles travail by a Brook which we called 
a branch of Black River. 

Sabbath Day. . . . We travail to Black River. At three 
islands, between which and a large pound we past ye River, enter 

1 Connecticut River. =^ Center Village in town of Springfield. 

2 Bellows Falls. ^ In the township of Ludlow. 



40 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

a mountain that afforded us a prospect of ye place of Fort Dum- 
mer. Soon after we enter a descending country, and travail till we 
arrive at Arthur Creek ^ in a descending land. In this day's trav- 
ail which is 21 miles, we came upon seven Brooks which run a 
S.W. course at ye north end of ye said Mountain. From Black 
River to Arthur Creek we judge is 25 miles. 

Monday. Made Canoes. 

Tuesday. Hindered travailing by rain. 

Wednesday. We go in our Canoes upon Arthur Creek, till 
we meet two great falls in said River.^ Said River is very Black 
and deep and surrounded with good land to ye extremity of our 
prospect. This day's travail 35 miles. 

Thursday. We sail 40 miles in Arthur Creek. We meet with 
great Falls, ^ and a little below them we meet with two other great 
Falls,^ and about 10 miles below ye said Falls we meet two other 
pretty large Falls.^ We carryd our Canoes by these Falls and 
come to ye Lake." ^ 

Eighteen years later Captam Eleazer Melvin with 
eighteen men in his command set out on a military 
expedition from Fort Dummer through the wilderness 
toward Crown Point. He followed much the same 
route that Cross had taken, and he too left a journal 
of the road. We can locate the places which he de- 
scribes, in the same way that we have located those of 
the earlier narrative. 

They started from Fort Dummer May 13, 1748, went 



1 Otter Creek. 2 Probably in the town of Rutland. 

3 Middlebury Falls. ^ Weybridge. ^ Vergennes. 

^ This is the diary of James Cross (or Coss) of his journey from 
Fort Dummer to Lake Champlain, made in April and May, 1730. I 
am indebted to B. H. Hall, History of Eastern Vermont, I, 21-23, for it, 
never having seen it elsewhere in print. It is- probable that Hall took 
it from the original manuscript in the office of the Secretary of State, 
Massachusetts, A xxxviii, 126, 127. — E. I). C. 



N.B.Connecticut River has been actually sur- 
vey d no further than to the Great Inter- 

bu-t the course of the River in gen- 
eral thro these Intervales has been 
set by Compass. & the length ^ » -. 
Cohass is here drawn according' ^^ li » 
to the best judgment of several -who ^ '^ 
have travelled thro it _-^~ 



these Rivh-i 
^^0%^. ±fZs 

White Pines <! 
--?^ ,\^c.^ I andgoodLand 



'Ho. Mountainous Country I 

These White Hills appear many j 
Leagues off at Sea like great \ 

bright Clouds above the Horizon, I 
& are a. noted Land Mark ^^i 
to Seamen. ,'"' I 





(dueWest) 
NEWHAMPS^HIRE _an_d_t^he_NIASSACHy SETS f 
^Tn Connecticut 'Kwer to a. grlat Pine Tree " Pine Tree, 
/ i3i Mites -s8 Poles Dracuf. 



Province 



Massachusets Bay 



Vermont at the Close of the French and Indian Wars 



THE WIDENING TRAIL 



41 



up the Connecticut to Number Four, then followed the 
Black River. On the 19th they crossed several large 
streams that were branches of the Otter Creek. They 
saw many signs of the enemy, both new and old, such 
as camps and girdled trees. On the 20th they marched 
over Otter Creek and around Sutherland Falls. Far- 
ther on they found several camps of the previous winter 
and beaten paths made by the enemy. On the 24th 
they came upon a camp fenced in with a very thick 
fence, and found there a keg of about four gallons' 
capacity which had been recently emptied of wine, as 
the smell indicated, and about twelve pounds of good 
French bread. They reached Champlain on the 28th, 
had a skirmish with a party of Indians, and began a 
retreat, pursued by about one hundred and fifty of the 
enemy. They came to Otter Creek in the town of 
Pittsford, about a mile below Sutherland Falls, marched 
to Center Rutland and camped. Before reaching Fort 
Dummer they had another skirmish and the party was 
scattered, four men killed, one wounded, and one taken 
prisoner. 

The campaigns after 1755 confined active hostilities 
to Lake Champlain and Lake George, and in 1759 an 
especially good opportunity came to begin the work of 
widening out the paths to accommodate more than trav- 
elers by foot. General Amherst had with him at Crown 
Point before that year closed a large number of men 
from the New England provinces. 

At the beginning of the year the New Hampshire 
and Massachusetts troops had gone to Ticonderoga 
by way of Albany and Lake George. You can see by 



42 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

looking on a map that this route might have been 
shortened if they had been sure of an easy road across 
the southern part of what is now Vermont. But they 
were not sure of it. Some Massachusetts soldiers who 
tried to take a short cut home, after their service was 
over, got lost and had to camp in territory that they 
had never seen before. We shall hear more about it 
later, but it is worthy of mention here because it shows 
what a fine thing a road would have been. 

Early in 1756 the government of Massachusetts voted 
to survey a road from Number Four through the woods 
to Crown Point, on the New York side of Lake Cham- 
plain. This road was designed to follow the course of 
the Otter Creek, after it had crossed the mountains and 
reached a point on that stream. The instructions which 
were" given for making the survey show that it would be 
a good thing for persons who intended to settle in its 
vicinity. Those who made the survey were to observe 
*' the true course of said creek, its depth of water, what 
falls there are in it, and also the nature of the soil on 
each side thereof, and what growth of woods is near it." 
These are the very things which intending settlers would 
wish to know. 

This road was surveyed and actually cut through in 
1759 i ^^^ our friend John Stark, whom we left in cap- 
tivity among the Indians in Canada, is again heard of, 
working on this road with two hundred rangers from 
New Hampshire. One could go on this road from the 
Connecticut River to the foot of the mountains with 
wagons and thence with pack horses to Rutland. Now 
we have seen that this road followed the course of 



THE WIDENING TRAIL 



43 



a famous old Indian trail, and have taken some pains 
to trace the growing familiarity of white men with it 
because it illustrates the method of the early settlers 
in coming into the state. Such routes were the most 




The Old Military Road near Clarend(jn 

available and easiest of access, and their nearness to 
streams gave the settlers that direct assistance of nature 
which was a prime requisite for their progress, water 
power for the first mills. 

As soon as enough settlements had been made to 
form town and county organizations, we find that acts 
were passed to provide for the opening up of roads so 
that the different towns could communicate with each 
other more easily. In 1766 an act was passed ''for 
laying out, regulating, and keeping in repair, common 
and public highways." This was in Cumberland County, 
which you will not find on the map, because it was long 



44 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

ago divided, most of it going to form Windham and 
Windsor counties. But such an act meant a good deal 
for the people of Cumberland County then. We find by 
this act that each town was to have three commissioners 
for laying out roads, and that the inhabitants of each town 
were to work on their roads six days in the year. The 
roads were to be not less than two and not over four rods 
wide. So we catch a glimpse of the way in which the first 
towns set about making their highways, and also learn how 
the old custom of ''working out your highway tax" arose. 

While on this subject of early road building we may 
as well take notice of another road which, although built 
some twenty years later, served exactly the same pur- 
pose in the northern part of the state as this road 
from Crown Point to Number Four did in the southern. 
That was the so-called Hazen road, built in the time 
of the American Revolution. It was not begun by Gen- 
eral Hazen at all, although it was afterward named for 
him, but by a General Bailey, who was at Newbury in the 
spring of 1776 and who was ordered to open a road from 
the mouth of the Wells River to St. John's, Canada. It 
was designed for military purposes ; but as the American 
troops found it necessary to leave Canada with all con- 
venient speed in that same year, the road was destined 
to serve the ends of peace, which after all are better 
than those of war. 

So the road was stopped for the time being at 
Peacham. It was there that General Hazen took up 
the work three years later. He carried it on through 
Cabot, Walden, Hardwick, Greensboro, Craftsbury, and 
Albany, to Lowell, where he left it at a jagged cleft 



THE WIDENING TRAIL 45 

in the soapstone rocks which goes to this day by the 
name of Hazen's Notch. Blockhouses were built along 
the way and doubtless served many a traveler as shelter 
for the night. When settlers began to come in greater 
numbers, after the Revolution, branches from the main 
road were built to various towns, such as those to Dan- 
ville and St. Johnsbury. In 1794 and 1795 a road was 
built from the Hazen road in Greensboro through Glover, 
Barton, Brownington, and Salem to Derby. Sometimes 
it seems that people will do more for the sake of war than 
they will for the sake of peace; but in the matter of road 
building we cannot complain. There are few military 
measures which are productive of such direct and perma- 
nent benefits. This road, which did not amount to any- 
thing for the war, was worth a great deal to the incoming 
settlers and to the state in serving the ends of peace. 

It was during the war, also, that the first road was 
opened from Mount Independence on Lake Champlain 
through Hubbardton to Center Rutland. A road was 
also made from Clarendon through Rutland to Pittsford ; 
and one of the most important highways in the state for 
years was the road built from Rutland through Castleton 
and Fairhaven to Whitehall. 

We must remember also the great service of those 
water courses and larger streams which offered smooth 
passage to canoe or laden boat. The Connecticut was 
such a stream on the eastern side of the state ; it served 
the settlers now as unresistingly as it had the genera- 
tions of red men in the past. On the western side of 
the mountains there were the great tributaries of Cham- 
plain enticing people into the heart of the country. 



46 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

Having taken notice of some of the ways of entering 
the wilderness, let us now turn to the people who came 
and see what their work was. 

First Settlements 

The results of the French and Indian War from 1744 
to 1749 had been the driving of the English from every 
fort and settlement in what is now our state, with the 
single exception of Fort Dummer. The result of the war 
from 1755 to 1760 was the driving of the French from 
every fort and settlement of theirs within the Champlain 
Valley. While we cannot expect to find permanent set- 
tlements within the state previous to 1749, we may be 
prepared to find a rapid inflow of settlers after 1 760. In 
fact, at that date a few settlements had been made 
between the Massachusetts line and Bellows Falls, 
scattered along the west bank of the Connecticut. 

When we compare this real beginning of the history 
of our state with that of the states just south of us, we 
realize with startling vividness how young we really are. 
Massachusetts was as old when the battle of Bennington 
was fought as our state is to-day. That is, in lapse of 
time Massachusetts and Connecticut had longer histories 
previous to that event than Vermont has had since. The 
founding of the first permanent settlement within the 
state stands almost exactly halfway between the landing 
of the Pilgrims and the present day. 

As we begin to watch the progress of the settlement 
of the state we shall find that our attention will be 
drawn west of the mountains and that our interest will 
fasten with a peculiar fascination on one particular place. 



THE WIDENING TRAIL 47 

Bennington is the pivotal point in Vermont's history. 
Her record has the charm of romance. Her site was 
discovered by accident ; her settlement was the first 
one made west of the Green Mountains ; hers was the 
first grant of Governor Benning Wentworth in the New 
Hampshire Grants ; she was the first chartered town in 
the state ; she was the center of excitement in the dis- 
pute with New York ; her old Catamount Tavern was 
the rendezvous of the Green Mountain boys ; her name 
marks a memorable battle. 

A Connecticut captain returning from service in the 
French and Indian wars thought to shorten his route 
home by taking a more direct course than that by way 
of Albany. His route for this purpose should have 
been from Lake George up the Hoosac River as far 
as Williamstown, Massachusetts, and thence across the 
mountains to his own state. But he mistook one of the 
branches of the river for the main stream, and did not 
discover the mistake until he had gone well up toward 
the mountain without having passed the Hoosac forts. 
He then correctly reasoned that he was in the Wal- 
loomsac Valley instead of the Hoosac. So he camped 
for the night. The next morning he turned southward 
toward Williamstown and made his way safely home. 
But the sight he had seen pleased his eyes, and he was 
not content till he had purchased rights in the township 
and had interested friends and acquaintances to join him 
in emigrating to this new land. 

The grant of the town had been made as early as 
1749, but the proprietors, like many other grantees, did 
not settle on their land themselves, but sold out their 



48 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

rights and interests to others who wished to move in as 
actual settlers. Bounties were offered for the building 
of the first gristmill and the first sawmill, those *' mod- 
ern conveniences " of early settlers. The settlement 
began in 1761, in early summer, when a party of twenty- 
two emigrants, numbering among them women and chil- 
dren, came on horseback over the mountains, passed the 
Hoosac forts, and arrived in the promised land on the 
1 8th of June. 

The first year was like that of many another settle- 
ment, a year of privation and hardship. But more 
settlers followed, coming up from Massachusetts and 
Connecticut, built houses, barns, and mills, worked the 
roads, and estabhshed schools, until in 1765 Bennington, 
thus named for the governor of New Hampshire who 
made the grant, was a thriving little town. A beginning 
had been successfully made, life in the wilderness was 
safe, apparently, from any human foe, hopes were high, 
and the tide of emigration set strongly in this direction. 
This much for the settlement of the town ; we shall 
hear more of it presently in other ways. 

If we turn back once more to the days when Lord 
Amherst occupied Crown Point, we shall find that one 
of his Connecticut soldiers, Benjamin Kellogg by name, 
was in the habit of coming frequently to the Vermont 
side of the lake, to the salt licks at Panton, to shoot deer. 
It is said that he supplied venison to the officers of the 
garrison at the fortress. However this may have been, 
after the army was disbanded in 1760, and the provincials 
returned home, this man continued to come for his annual 
fall hunt at the salt licks. Then returning home he would 



THE WIDENING TRAIL 



49 



tell his neighbors of the place where he hunted deer 
and what chances there were here and there for settlers 
to pitch. Finally, in the fall of 1765, there came with 
him one John Strong seeking a place for a home in the 
wilderness. 

Three settlers in the previous spring had also come to 
begin a clearing about three miles north of Chimney 
Point, where the little stone fort had been. These men 
were working there when Kellogg and Strong came into 
the country ; so the latter made them a neighborly call, 
looked over the little clearing which represented their 
summer's work, helped them sow their wheat, and then 
took a look at the country to the eastward. They finally 
returned to the lake, and Strong decided to build there. 
He chose the location of an old French house as the 
site of his dwelling, and thus saved himself the trouble 
of digging a cellar and building a chimney. The three 
settlers requited his assistance to them by helping him 
put up the cabin. 

In such ways the land became known and attracted 
the more adventurous spirits in the older colonies, until 
one by one or in little groups they had scattered over 
the state as far north as the Cohasse intervals, where 
the Indians had planted corn while their captives starved 
in the days of the French and Indian War. 

It was not strange that the Cohasse intervals, or 
Coos meadows, as they were sometimes called, should 
attract settlers. They lay accessible on the well-known 
waters of the Connecticut ; they had long been known 
to captives, and rangers had more than once passed 
through them ; they had been used for years, perhaps 



50 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

for generations, by the Indians as maize fields ; and the 
broad meadows, ah"eady cleared and covered with a rank 
growth of wild grass, were a standing invitation to the 
settlers who should first deem it safe to move in after 
the Indians had moved out. The broad river offered a 
highway thither, and as early as 1762 a few families 
ventured up the river and settled on opposite banks. 
The nearest neighbors were at Charlestown, sixty miles 
south. Thence the newcomers brought supplies by boat 
in summer, on the ice in winter. The settlement grew, 
and by the year 1 765 Newbury was a well-organized town. 
The neighbors southward had so multiplied that there 
was scarcely a town on the west bank of the river that did 
not have a little group of pioneers. Benning Wentworth 
had been busy. 

We might go on narrating the stories of the settling 
of other towns here and there. Bellows Falls, Windsor, 
Manchester, Guildhall, Middlebury, Vergennes, Rutland, 
Burlington, St. Albans, — all settled before the war of 
the Revolution. By the year 1765 Governor Went- 
worth had made grants of no less than one hundred and 
thirty-eight townships. The course of settlement was 
not as it is now, when cities spring from the plain in a 
day, and railroads carry westward between sunrise and 
sunset people enough to populate our state. Men were 
few in the colonies ; capital was scarce ; and people did 
not rush then as they rush now. But the traveler along 
the widening trail would see with growing frequency the 
rising smoke from the solitary cabin of some newcomer, 
would hear the sound of the plumping-miir at the time 
of morning, noon, or evening meal, and would catch the 



THE WIDENING TRAIL 51 

sound of the ax as it struck at the heart of the timber 
along the gentler slopes of the hills or in the valleys 
which nestled high up among the mountains. 

Life in the Wilderness 

If the traveler, although a stranger, had entered one of 
those cabins, he would have been welcomed with a hospi- 
tality which the present generation reserves for its partic- 
ular friends. There was a purer democracy, a greater 
community of interests, and a nearer approach to equality 
among men than this state or this country will ever see 
again. When the population of a town consisted of one 
individual, as was sometimes the case, it enjoyed com- 
parative freedom from the dangers of plutocracy, from 
the antagonism of the classes and the masses, and from 
the menace of organized labor. When every guest bore 
in himself the possibility of becoming a distinct addition 
to the social and laboring force of the community, and 
when if he were only a passer-by he was like a touch 
from the outside world, there were too potent reasons for 
entertaining him to allow of his being lightly dismissed. 

There were a great many personal questions to be 
asked and answered, if there were no great public ques- 
tions to be discussed ; and it is safe to say that few 
travelers ran the gauntlet of such inquisition without giv- 
ing some account of themselves more or less truthful. 
It must have been in those days that the far-famed and 
long-lived Yankee inquisitiveness was born. As for 
public questions, there were plenty of them. From the 
beginning of the dispute over the New Hampshire 
Grants to the close of the War of 18 12 there were few 



52 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



days when the people of the state did not have before 
them pubHc questions as vital to the integrity of Ver- 
mont and as insistent upon imme- 
diate solution as any they have 
ever known. This period of time 
would cover the events of the 
Revolution, which brought Bur- 
goyne into such unpleasant prox- 
imity, the period in which our 
state was maintaining herself as 
an independent republic, the em- 
bargo times, and the War of i8 1 2 

— certainly enough for one gen- 
eration of men. 

Another habit than inquisitive- 
ness was then born of necessity 
among the farmers of our state, 

— and practically every man was 
then a farmer, — and that was the habit of incessant 
labor from dawn to dark. Along with the habit was 
cultivated the capacity for it. When every man must 
provide for himself and his family everything from 
the building in which they dwelt to the food with 
which they fed their bodies and the clothes which they 
put upon their backs, there was little room for idleness 
and small place for a man whose hand knew no cunning 
or did not possess a diversified and manifold skill. The 
home of the early settler in Vermont was as nearly self- 
sufficing as the necessities of an isolated situation and 
his own fertile inventiveness could make it. That is, 
it produced what it consumed to a remarkable degree. 




Om) Wooden Churn 



THE WIDENING TRAIL 



53 



It is safe to say that in this respect it was nearer 
the manor of mediasval times than like the farm Hfe 
of to-day. 

Modern industrial organization has reached modern 
farm life in all its phases and made it dependent in a 
thousand different ways. Take away transportation, take 
away markets, take away every machine-made thing, and 
you would throw us a long way back toward feudal times. 
In clothing, in food, in shelter, in household goods, in 
farming tools, nothing was then bought that could be 
made. Little money was seen, little was needed ; for 
clothing was made at home ; the forest and the pigpen 
furnished meat ; tolls were taken at the mills for grind- 
ing grain; taxes were worked out or paid *'in kind." 
Vermont taxes were light anyway. If a farmer raised 
more grain than he needed for his own use, he could 
exchange it for labor, which was more serviceable to him 
than cash. 

Let us look a little 
more closely at the 
principal features of 
this life. The con- 
ditions here por- 
trayed are truly typ- 
ical, though they 
would not all be 
present in every 
community, and pos- 
sibly not all in any single settlement. 

We have already noticed one instance of settlers 
going into the wilderness, clearing land for their first 




Winnowing Basket 



54 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



crops, sowing wheat, building a cabin, and thus laying in 
various ways the foundations of their new home before 
they took their families there to live. The hardships of 
frontier life were lightened greatly when this could be 
done ; for a single favorable season might suffice to rear 
a little one-room cabin of logs, and secure grain enough 
from the mellow soil of the clearing to keep the house- 
hold alive while the next 
year's crops were growing. 
Then, if the settler could 
take with him on his second 
trip, in the following spring, 
a cow, a pig, and some poul- 
try, he would make the con- 
ditions of life quite tolerable 
for his wife and children 
from the start. 

There were plenty, how- 
ever, who began life under 
no such favorable circum- 
stances. Men and women 
went bravely into the forest 
with little but stout hearts, 
strong bodies, an ax and a 
gun. Their first necessity 
was a rude shelter ; following that the clearing of a plot 
for the planting of Indian corn and a few vegetables 
like turnips, parsnips, potatoes, and possibly pumpkins. 
Meantime game from the forest, fish from the stream, 
or provisions brought on strong shoulders from the 
nearest settlement supplied the forest bill of fare. 




Warming Pans 



THE WIDENING TRAIL 



55 



When the nearest settlement was twenty miles away, 
"toting" provisions was no small task. 

If there were no mill in the neighboring settlement, 
a homemade pliimping-mill or samp mortar did service 
three times a day in pounding out corn for an unvaried 
diet. These mills were 
crude affairs, only a step 
in advance of the stone 
pestle and mortar of the 
aborigines. They were 
made by burning out a 
hollow in the end of a 
stump, then attaching 
a weight or plunger to 
a near-by sapling which 
would serve as a spring 
pole and in the hands of 
the operator act as a pestle 
to pound out the grain. 

The sound of the mill 
could be heard a long dis- 
tance through the woods 
or clearings and served to 
notify the traveler of his 
approach to some back- 
woods home, or to call the workers in the distant clearing 
to their simple meals. If reports are true, these mills were 
turned by inventive housewives into tongues of gossip 
when homes were too widely separated for a daily visit. 
If a gristmill were near, the sound of the plumping-mill 
was no longer heard in the land, but for a consideration 




Birch Splint Bru(jms 



56 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

of two and one half quarts to the bushel the " pudding- 
mill" furnished a more expeditious and less laborious 
means of pulverization. If by good fortune the settler 
was the possessor of a cow, pudding and milk then 
furnished him a stable article of diet. 

By the second harvest a greater variety would break 
the monotony of his fare. Occasional wheat cakes 
would appear, to be eaten with maple sugar made from 
the trees of the near-by woods. Sugar making under 
such primitive conditions resembled the crude Indian 
methods more than our present-day process with its 
improved buckets, spouts, holders, carriers, evaporators 
and all, to say nothing of the trim little sugar-houses, 
which then would have seemed like palaces to dwell in. 
Sugar making was conducted in the open, or by the 
side of the rough lean-to, with great open kettles or pots 
for the boiling ; while the sap dripped from great gashes 
in the trees through homemade spouts of sumach or 
basswood into rough-hewn troughs. 

It is said that the Indians used to make large troughs 
of pine trees, large enough to hold a thousand gallons of 
sap, and that the Indian women boiled this sap down 
by heating large stones in great fires and plunging them 
into the liquid mass until it had reached the desired 
consistency. A writer who traveled through portions 
of the state previous to the last century said that the 
sugar of the hard maple was of good grain and flavor, 
''fully equal in quality to the best muscavado." What- 
ever the quality, — and it probably varied as much then 
as now, — it served in many homes as the sole sweeten- 
ing for cooking from one year's end to the other, unless 



THE WIDENING TRAIL 



57 



by some good luck a swarm of bees was discovered in 
the woods, or lined from the wild flowers of the clear- 
ing to their honeyed homes in some hollow tree. 

The settlers planted fruit seeds on their first coming, 
and a few years rewarded them with gooseberries and 
currants, and presently with apples and plums. In 
some parts of 
the state grapes, 
peaches, and 
pears were also 
raised in con- 
siderable quanti- 
ties. In conse- 
quence of the 
abundance of 
apples, great 
quantities of 
cider were made 
to save them — 
and then drunk 
to save the 
cider ; while an 
occasional dis- 
tillery appeared 
to accommodate 
those who thought their mortal frames required the 
stimulus of a more potent liquid. Homemade malt and 
hop beer became popular drinks, and in time the demands 
of politics and a growing civilization evolved rum and 
molasses, punch, flip, and toddy. There was some water 
drunk, of course, even then, and plenty more of it to be 




An Old Well-Sweep 



58 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

had in the cold springs that came bubbUng up through 
the sand and stones, clear and sparkling. 

When a beaver meadow lay near the settler's pitch 
his task of keeping cattle alive through the first winter 
was much simplified. Here was hay that could be cut 
and stacked without the labor of first clearing land. If 
several settlers dwelt near the meadow, it was only fair 
to hold it as common property. A good many interest- 
ing little bits of communal organization may be found 
in the histories of our first towns. The hay reeve and 
the hog ward became as necessary as any town officers, 
when cattle were plentier than fences. At such times 
it became a convenient and economical expedient to have 
one man assume authority over the several and indi- 
vidual members of the herd. When cattle ran in one 
common drove it sometimes became necessary as num- 
bers multipHed to brand them or clip their ears with 
some distinguishing mark to identify the animals of 
different owners. Swine found pasturage in the woods, 
where they could live on roots and nuts. At Swanton 
a convenient disposal of them was made by taking them 
over to an island in the lake, where they could roam at 
will. Another reminder this of medieval times, when 
the right of their hogs to run in the woods was made 
one of the demands of the peasants. 

As the building of a gristmill marked an epoch in 
the life of the inner man, so the advent of the sawmill 
marked a change in outward appearances. It provided 
settlers with means of constructing more comfortable 
and less picturesque habitations than those of rough 
logs. The little one-room cabin with its great chimney 



THE WIDENING TRAIL 



59 



and fireplace at the end, through which as much light 
came as through the windows, could now be easily 
divided by a board partition into two rooms ; perhaps it 
could be supplied with a floor beneath, and a loft over- 
head where the children could lie o' nights and watch the 
stars through the cracks in the roof till the sleepy eyes 
closed in slumber. Newcomers would build no longer 
log cabins but frame houses, if they built within con- 
venient distance of the mill. Public buildings of some 
importance could now arise, and the more prosperous 
farmers could indulge in the luxury of board fences. 

Indoors, life 
would go on much 
the same as before! 
When trees were 
standing around 
waiting to be cut 
and the woodsman 
needed his blows 
for clearing land, 
he did not stop to 
chop the firewood 
fine. Four-foot 
lengths for the 
fireplace were not extravagant, and the bigger the 
backlog that could be placed upon the irons the bet- 
ter. In days when matches were unknown and the 
nearest neighbor from whom fire could be borrowed was 
perhaps a mile away, it was a virtue if not a neces- 
sity to keep fire always going. The evening's light 
from the fireplace was eked out by the "taller dip" or 





1 


BiMM.^^f^l 



Candle Dips 



6o 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 




Old Candle Molds 



candle, and candle-making time came to be a greasy 
day as much reckoned on in the calendar of labor as 
soap-making time or the fall slaughtering of the hogs. 

Bear's grease, deer 
suet, and moose fat 
were all scrupulously 
saved and tried into 
tallow for candles ; 
and some farmers 
kept bees for the 
wax as well as for 
honey, for wax can- 
dles were also used. 
The fireplace was 
the cooking stove of 
many a backwoods housewife, and it served its purpose 
well for many years, equipped with cranes and pots. 
Later, when bricks were made, ovens became a necessity 
instead of a luxury. Some women were enterprising 
and skillful enough to anticipate the brick oven by 
constructing of stones and clay ovens for themselves. 
The women of those days deserve especial honor. 
Wives and mothers they, who were helpmates and 
workers always, in hardship and danger making the 
home life sweet, diligent with hands and head, with 
little time for thoughts of finery or any but the plain 
and simple and necessary things of life. Not that they 
lacked appreciation of fine things or that their period 
of exile killed the feminine taste for fashion. Indeed 
it did not ; it was transmitted to their daughters, to 
blossom out in all its glory even to the third and fourth 



THE WIDENING TRAIL 



— and nobody knows how many more — generations. 
But those women in seedtime and harvest worked 
beside their husbands in the field, or in the absence 
of the men guarded the pigpen, sheepfold, and poultry 
house from the predatory bear, wolf, or fox. If their 
husbands were clearing in the field, they could pile 
brush ; in potato digging, flax pulling, husking, and 
sugaring they lent helping hands. In addition to these 
tasks they did work within the cabin which would con- 
found a housewife of the present day. In their hands 
rested in no small measure the training of the children ; 
and in the life 
of the neighbor- 
hood, when doc- 
tors were few 
and far between, 
they were the 
ones who minis- 
tered to every 
ill that befell 
humanity from 
the cradle to 
the grave. What 
wonder that we 
still bow down to 
the virtue of ''old 
wives' remedies." 

It was a golden augury for the welfare of the state 
that schools and churches were among the first thoughts 
of the settlers after they had made the barest provision 
for their own homes. It speaks no less eloquently for 




An Old-time Fireplace, Brick Oven, and 
Utensils 



62 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



their efforts that the first schools were taught in corn 
barns by the Hght of the open doorway and the rays 
that came silting through the cracks between the boards, 
or in the hay barns vacant in summer, or on the stoops 

of log houses. Schools 
were begun when the 
means of their support 
were but a few bushels 
of corn or wheat voted by 
the town. Salaries of 
teachers were not high 
then; they never have 
been since. The story of 
one backwoods pedagogue 
is that when asked his 
terms -he replied, gazing 
at the great mouth of the 
fireplace which occupied 
one end of the room, that 




Goose Basket, used to hold 
Goose Feathers and some- 
times USED to hold Waste 
Flax 



he guessed he could cut 



the wood and teach the 
school for the ashes he 
could make. The meaning of the remark will presently 
appear. Of course in winter school keeping on porches 
and in barns was out of question, and some of the more 
commodious private houses were called into requisition 
if no regular schoolhouse existed. 

The first schoolhouses could hardly compare with 
ours, but they served well the purpose of their day. 
They were oftentimes plain log structures, with a fire- 
place at one end, a door at the other, and a window on 



THE WIDENING TRAIL 63 

each side. Along the clay-chinked walls pegs were 
driven, and on these rough boards were laid to serve 
as desks. Some were more elaborately planned with a 
nearer approach to individual desks. 

The early histories of the towns throughout the state 
reveal the high place in the life of the community which 
was taken by the churches and their pastors. The 
great number of preachers and religious denominations 
testify to a wholesome regard for spiritual things, to 
freedom of worship, independence of opinion, religious 
toleration, and, so far as such a thing can exist, religious 
equality. 

As time went on a few new industries arose, based 
on the bounties of Nature. An iron forge was built 
here, a limekiln there ; asheries, brickyards, and black- 
smith shops began to appear. The beginnings were 
humble, but they were significant of far greater changes 
to come, when business should divide into multifold 
branches, and trades and crafts multiply almost beyond 
the comprehension of man. 

For the most part, men were still farmers, and the 
greater portion of the state lay unreclaimed. So the 
work of settlement went on, along the high lands first, 
then creeping down little by little toward the river 
bottoms. On the higher slopes grew the hard wood, 
the stumps of which decayed quickly, covering the earth 
with rich, mellow soil which would yield sure crops the 
first year with no fertilizing. Lumber had but little 
value, but ashes of hard wood were everywhere salable 
for potash and pearlash, and yielded the settlers what 
little ready money they had. A double purpose was 



64 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



thus served by clearing the hills first. Roads, too, 
were easily made on the drier uplands ; while along 
the river bottoms, wetter then than now, they would 
have been impassable. So the old villages were perched 
upon the hills, and the old stage roads, some of which 
now are but bush-lined lanes, were put through them, 
running from hilltop to hilltop, up hill and down dale, 
in lines as straight as the crow takes in his flight. 

Do not think that the life of those days was barren, 
dull, or meaningless. There were people who could 

develop a states- 
manship second to 
none, win and main- 
tain independence, 
without the help of 
railroad, highway, 
or steamboat, with- 
out newspaper, 
telegraph, or tele- 
phone. Their 
strength and power 
were bred in them, not acquired from outside. Such life 
was the training school of character. The men w^ho gave 
their lives to toil knew how to make the toil a pleasure 
by the cooperation of the neighborly hand, in changing 
work, in raisings, logging bees, stone-pulling bees, husk- 
ing bees, and many a homely frolic touched with service. 
If salted bear's meat was sometimes a necessary substi- 
tute for beef and pork, there was also the toothsome 
haunch of venison that was as sure to come as the 
autumn snows that gave the first sign for the fall hunt. 




A Typical Old-time Coach and 
Tavern 



THE WIDENING TRAIL 65 

The streams yielded trout in abundance, and many a 
log cabin furnished fare that the sporting epicure of 
to-day would have to go far to equal. 

The settlers had their politics, too, although it was no 
longer the French in Canada who disturbed their peace. 
Have you never thought how remarkably short the time 
was after the English government helped the colonists 
drive the French out of Canada before the French gov- 
ernment turned about and helped the colonists drive 
the English government out of the colonies "^ That 
is, the war of the Revolution followed close upon the 
conquest of Canada. The American colonies still had 
their national politics. The settlers in the New Hamp- 
shire Grants, as om" state was then called, shared in the 
national politics ; not only that, but they first had a 
very exciting issue of their own in local politics, which 
demands a separate chapter. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE DEBATABLE LAND 

At a Court at St. James, 

the 24th. day of July, 1767. 
His Majesty, taking the said report 1 into consideration, was pleased, 
with the advice of his private council, to approve thereof, and doth 
hereby strictly charge, require and command, that the Governor or 
Commander in Chief of his Majesty's Province of New York, for the 
time being, do not, upon pain of his Majesty's highest displeasure, pre- 
sume to make any grant whatsoever, of any part of the lands described 
in the said report, until his Majesty's further pleasure shall be known, 
concerning the same. — Order of the King in Council. 

A Subject of Dispute : the New Hampshire 
Grants 

When the king of England appointed royal governors 
in his American colonies he gave them certain powers, 
such as the right to grant land which remained unsettled 
within their jurisdiction. It is apparent that in exercis- 
ing this right the governors were in every case acting 
as officers or agents of the king, since it was under the 
king's authority that they acted at all. It would further- 
more appear that this right to make grants of land 
would hold good for any portion of the province or 
colony over which the governor was appointed. 

It happened that in the year 1741 Benning Went- 
worth had been appointed governor of New Hamp- 
shire under the king. He was given this right of 

1 Report of the Board of Trade on the disputed claims in the New 
Hampshire Grants. 

66 



THE DEBATABLE LAND 



67 



making grants of land within his province. The western 
boundary of the province had never been very definitely 
described. The province simply ran westward till it 
met his majesty's other lands. Now since New Hamp- 
shire came from territory which had previously been a 
part of Massachusetts, 
and Massachusetts was 
supposed to extend 
westward until it 
reached a line twenty 
miles east of the Hud- 
son River, Governor 
Wentworth reasoned 
that New Hampshire 
would also extend west- 
ward the same distance. 
He accordingly began 
to make grants of town- 
ships west of the Con- 
necticut River, the first 
one thus granted being 
the township of Ben- 
nington, the settlement 
of which has already 
been described. 

The governor of 
New York, when informed that grants were thus being 
made in this unsettled territory, raised objections on 
the grounds that land west of the Connecticut really 
belonged to the province of New York and therefore 
was under his jurisdiction, and that he was the one to 




B E N N I \ G W E \ T\V O RT H 



6S HISTORY OF VERMONT 

make grants if any were to be made. He based his 
claim on the boundary of the province of New York and 
on his commission and instructions. 

We find, therefore, that two royal governors, acting 
for the .same king, were in a dispute over the right to 
grant his territory. We can understand why it made 
some difference to them ; because out of every town- 
ship which Governor Wentworth granted he reserved 
a good portion for himself, and for every grant which 
Governor Clinton made he charged right good fees. 
It was for the interest of each to possess this right 
to make the grants, but we cannot understand why it 
should make any real difference with the validity of a 
settler's title whether it came through Clinton or Went- 
worth. They were both agents of the same authority ; 
the grants made by either came really from the king, 
and a grant from the king of his own lands ought to 
have been good, no matter through whose hands it 
came. 

Of course this question whether Governor Clinton 
or Governor Wentworth was correct in the matter was 
a question for the king to decide. The matter was 
referred to him for that purpose ; the case was inves- 
tigated by the proper officers ; they reported it to be 
their opinion that the Connecticut River was the bound- 
ary between the two provinces. An Order in Council 
was accordingly issued declaring the Connecticut River 
to be the boundary between the provinces of New 
York and New Hampshire. This of course brought 
the grants which Governor Wentworth had made into 
the territory of New York. 




Early Map of New Hampshire, including the Territory from 

WHICH Governor Wentworth made the 

New Hampshire Grants 



70 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

But this was in 1 764, a number of years after Governor 
Wentworth commenced to make grants. During the 
dispute he continued to make a few grants ; after 1 760 
he made them with a diHgence that was truly remarkable. 
You will remember that settlers in increasing num- 
bers began to pour into the state in that year. The 
land which these settlers took had been granted in this 
way by the governor of New Hampshire. The coun- 
try became known in consequence of this as the New 
Hampshire Grants. 

When the order of the king reached New York the 
lieutenant governor published a proclamation announcing 
the fact and telling the settlers on the grants to govern 
themselves accordingly. Although the Order in Council 
and the proclamation came as something of a surprise to 
people who received their titles from New Hampshire 
and had become accustomed to regard that state as their 
parent and superior, the documents did not cause alarm. 
The settlers did not anticipate with pleasure the change 
in authority which the order involved, but they felt 
inclined to accept it without making trouble, for to them 
it appeared to be simply a change in jurisdiction which 
did not affect the validity of their titles. 

It could hardly be expected that the settlers on the 
New Hampshire Grants would like the jurisdiction of 
New York as well as that of New Hampshire. These 
settlers were mostly New England men, and New Eng- 
land people had their own ways of doing things, which 
differed from the New York methods. For example, the 
New York lands had been granted in old Dutch times, 
before the English took possession, and were held under 



THE DEBATABLE LAND 71 

what was known as the patroon system. This gave large 
tracts to a few men instead of small farms to a great many 
men. One man might possess thousands of acres ; but 
the men who worked on this land would be nothing but 
tenants of his, instead of independent owners of farms of 
their own. It was quite different from the New England 
method. However, so far as tenure of their farms was 
concerned, the settlers on the New Hampshire Grants did 
not anticipate trouble, for they already owned them. 

In the matter of government, too, the settlers could not 
expect much voice, for in administering affairs the New 
York way was not at all like their own. In New York 
the government was more aristocratic, and we have seen 
that the settlers were very democratic. In New York 
even the local officers were appointed either directly or 
indirectly by the central authority. The settlers had 
become accustomed to appointing for themxselves what- 
ever local officers they needed. Their town meetings 
had come to be a sort of foundation of government, a 
political nursery and training school. The two systems 
were essentially different, and the settlers would have to 
accustom themselves to the change ; but after all they 
were under the same king, and a mere transfer of juris- 
diction was not worth revolting against, if that were all. 

But a mere change of jurisdiction was not all, as 
presently appeared. First, rumors began to float about 
that the governor of New York was taking the king's 
order not only to establish future jurisdiction over the 
grants, but to annul present titles. He was going to 
make the Order in Council retroactive in its effects. 
This meant that the settlers must abandon their homes 



72 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

— the homes which they had bought, cleared, and paid 
for — or pay for them agam in fees and exorbitant charges 
to the New York officials. A very different matter this 
from submitting to a mere change in jurisdiction. 

Presently, in confirmation of the rumors, men began 
to appear from New York, bringing surveyors with them ; 
and in the summer and fall of 1765 they busied them- 
selves by running lines, setting up stakes in the fields, 
and marking trees in the woods. They were preparing 
to claim lands under New York patents. The settlers 
became alarmed for the security of their property and 
sought redress. But redress was hard to get. They were 
under the jurisdiction of the power which was robbing 
them. It was hopeless to appeal to the party that was 
taking away their rights, yet they did appeal. They did 
all they could decently and in good form, — appointed 
agents to represent their case, sent to New York asking 
the governor's protection since they were under his 
authority, sought legal redress. But it was of no avail. 
City speculators had already bought up grants of their 
best lands, and for the remainder, if they chose to retain 
them, fees were demanded which were said to be as much 
as the land itself was worth. In other words, they must 
pay for the labor which they had themselves expended on 
their own estates. 

It is apparent that, although this controversy actually 
began in one town, the issue was really not a local issue 
at all. If the settlers were beaten in one town, the same 
thing would happen in every town of the New Hampshire 
Grants. The cause was a general one, and the settlers 
had the sagacity to see that organized and concerted 



THE DEBATABLE LAND 73 

action was necessary. We shall presently study the form 
which that action took. 

That they were right in assuming that change of juris- 
diction was all that the king's Order in Council contem- 
plated was shown conclusively in 1767. The king had 
been informed of the trouble which the action of the 
governor of New York was making in the grants ; and in 
order to settle that controversy and forestall any further 
conflicts he issued in i "j^J a second Order in Council on 
the subject of dispute. It positively forbade the gov- 
ernor of New York to make any further grants of dis- 
puted territory. This showed that the settlers' titles 
were valid, and that the Order in Council of 1764 was 
not intended to give the governor of New York any 
authority to grant over again to some one else lands 
which had been granted once by the governor of New 
Hampshire to purchasers in good faith. 

But the governors of New York had been emulating 
the example of Benning Wentworth and had already 
made enough grants of just this kind to give the settlers 
a lively fight to retain their homes. Not only this, but 
the king's second order was treated as a nullity and 
grants were made continuously by the governor of New 
York and his successors with one exception to the days 
of the American Revolution.^ 

The Green Mountain Boys 

The people of the New Hampshire Grants had been 
living plain, simple lives, without getting into quarrels 
and without making much noise in the world. They had 

iSee Appendix, Part III, Table A, for the amount of the grants 
and the fees. 



74 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



little money, slight legal counsel, no influence. They 
were under the necessity of conducting their own defense. 
They did it ; and if ever an inherent Anglo-Saxon sense of 



•3. 



6 




y 



^ 



BATH 






^ 



o 

As 




' ^OAnrt^OUTH COLL ^ 




<oV HAMP^SHtRE 



f^ALBAfiY 



Vermont divided into four Counties under the 
Jurisdiction of New York 

constitutional procedure was shown, it was when they sub- 
mitted their cause to be tried at Albany, in the regular 
way, in the courts of the power that was overriding them, 



THE DEBATABLE LAND 75 

after that power had shown indubitable signs of what 
its pohcy would be, by sending home their agents from 
New York with answers that showed the hopelessness 
of further appeal. 

As the contest went on it looked as though the New 
York authorities regarded it as one of the instances in 
which might makes right. The attorney general plainly 
intimated this. Ethan Allen responded in scriptural 
phrase that "the gods of the valleys are not the gods 
of the hills." On being questioned by the official as 
to the interpretation thereof, Allen replied that if he 
would come to Bennington the meaning would be made 
plain to him. It was made plain, and at Bennington, 
although the attorney general was not there. 

When the test cases were called at Albany the court 
refused to allow the charters of the town and the deeds 
of the settlers to be presented as evidence. There could 
be, therefore, no defense. The settlers were stripped 
of legal recourse, and verdicts were rendered for the 
New York grantees. The result of these ejectment suits 
at Albany in June, 1770, conclusively demonstrated one 
thing : there was no means of legal redress, and further 
appeal to New York was useless. It was well for the 
settlers that the decision was not equivocal. No pos- 
sible doubt could be left in their minds now as to what 
they must do. 

Since the New York claimants, supported by the 
decision of the courts, would surely attempt to eject 
the settlers, it remained for the latter to provide means 
to retain their homes and defend them. The conditions 
under which the settlers were placed were such as they 



J6 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

had never before been called on to face. There was 
nothing, therefore, in their experience to provide for 
such an emergency, nothing in their town govern- 
ments to handle such cases as those now in hand, no 
organization existing which could act for them. 

It might be a very simple matter to repel the sheriff 
who came to serve the writs of ejectment upon the 
settlers whose titles had been condemned in the New 
York courts ; it would be a far different matter to deal 
with the full force of royal authority in the province 
which stood behind this officer, if that should be called 
into requisition. It was with a full understanding of the 
remoter consequences which their action involved that 
the settlers prepared for defense. 

The issue came first to the town of Bennington when 
the defendants in the ejectment suits came back from 
Albany beaten in the courts. The town of Bennington 
met the issue by calling a meeting to determine the 
sentiments of the inhabitants and voting to take the 
defendants under the protection of the town. It was 
no non-committal step ; but really the town could do no 
less, for the result of this issue would determine the 
strength of New York laws and the fate of the settlers 
in the grants. The action of the town, therefore, was 
not merely heroic or self-sacrificing ; it was necessary 
to self-preservation. Everything was at stake. If these 
writs were executed, it would be the turn of some one 
else next, and so on to the end. The time to face the 
issue was at the start. 

The sheriff was not able to execute the writs without 
assistance. Gathering a large posse, he approached the 



THE DEBATABLE LAND jy 

farm of one of the defendants, Breakenridge by name. 
But warning of his project had spread, and when he 
arrived the settlers were prepared to receive him. The 
sheriff was no coward, but circumstances were unfavor- 
able for the performance of his duty. The settlers 
had posted a hundred well-armed men in the woods 
which ran along the ridge of the slope where the farm- 
house stood ; across the tilled field to the southeast, but 
within gunshot, was a smaller force ; the house itself 
was barricaded and garrisoned. 

The settlers met sheriff Ten Eyck with the warning 
that they should hold their own at all costs, and when 
he seized an ax and threatened to smash in the door, 
he found the points of too many muskets leveled at him 
to make it a prudent undertaking. These men rarely 
missed their aim. He retired with discretion, and not 
a shot was fired on either side. The posse dispersed, as 
one writer says, "with commendable speed to their own 
homes," and the gods of the hills were left in peaceful 
possession of their own. 

While this was a bloodless victory, its importance 
should not be underestimated. It turned the tide of 
events in favor of the settlers and against the New 
York claimants at just the critical moment, and by so 
doing it gave the defenders of the grants a premonition 
of the success which was to be theirs in spite of the 
adverse rulings of the Albany court, if they only stood 
stanchly together. It also showed their opponents the 
temper of these people, and that it would be no small 
power that could dispossess them of their homes. Fur- 
thermore, it made the town of Bennington the leader 



7S 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



and the headquarters of the opposition to New York 
claimants. 

But the issue was not settled. Defense could not stop 
where it had begun. It yet remained to establish a more 
systematic and definite form of resistance through the 
western townships. Town meetings and conferences were 
held, and the organization of military com^panies began 
under an association which took its name from a threat 




The Oi.i) Catamotxt T.wern 



which the governor of New York had made to drive the 
opponents of his authority into the green mountains, — 
the name of the Green Mountain Boys. 

In this controversy there appears for the first time in 
the public affairs of the state the figure of Ethan Allen. 
He came from Connecticut to Bennington in the time of 
the land-grant dispute as a proprietor under the New 
Hampshire charters. He was 'sturdy, self-reliant, and 
possessed of those commanding qualities which go to 



THE DEBATABLE LAND 



79 



make natural leaders in such epochs. He threw him- 
self whole-heartedly into the struggle, helped the defend- 
ants prepare their cases for trial with as much skill as a 
trained lawyer, became a leader of the Green Mountain 
Boys when it was necessary to bid defiance to the pro- 
cess of the courts, and was a dominant figure in their 
councils held at the 
old Catamount 
Tavern of Landlord 
Stephen Fay. 

The sign of this 
green mountain hos- 
telry was the stuffed 
skin of a catamount, 
reared aloft on a 
pole, facing with 
grinning teeth the 
New York border. 
In this tavern the 
leaders of the Green 
Mountain Boys ma- 
tured their plans, and 
in later days, during 
the troublous times 

of the Revolution, the Council of Safety met and pon- 
dered around the old fireplace across whose top were 
cut in rude letters the words Cousil Room. 




Monument marking the Site of the 
Catamount Tavern 



Beginnings of Statecraft 

It is an interesting story and well worth looking into, 
this story of how the settlers on the New Hampshire 



8o 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



Grants maintained their own. In spite of its unques- 
tioned seriousness, not only to those whose Hves, Hberty, 
and property were hazarded, but also for the future of 
the state, there is a certain grim humor about the whole 
situation which lends it a distinct and spicy flavor. 

Here were two parties, like angry school children, call- 
ing each other all sorts of opprobrious names. The one 
faction was stigmatized as a crowd of "land jobbers," 

''land thieves," ''land 
pirates," " specula- 
tors," " Yorkites " ; 
the other side was 
known by such dire 
and dreadful names 
as " the Bennington 
mob," " wanton dis- 
turbers of the peace," 
"rioters," "conspira- 
tors," and the like. 
Here were the Green 
Mountain Boys occa- 
sionally chastising the 
more persistent of 
their enemies with "twigs of the wilderness, the growth 
of the land which they coveted," setting with the terrible 
solemnity of thirty-nine lashes an indelible impression 
of the "beech seal " upon both the mind and bared back 
of the recipient. It was tangible evidence that the Green 
Mountain Boys were acting under some authority or 
other. Here were the New York officials offering 
rewards for the capture of Ethan Allen, Remember 




The Fireplace in the Council Room 
OF THE Catamount Tavern 



THE DEBATABLE LAND 8l 

Baker, and other leaders of this band of Robin Hoods, 
and they in like fashion returning the compliment, 
although at a significantly lower figure. 

But we observed the really essential thing when we 
took notice of the manner in which the settlers began 
their determined resistance to encroachment. From 
that alone we could foresee that out of all this trouble, 
some of which looks more like rough horseplay than 
statesmanship, there would come in due time a training 
in the practical management of their own affairs, a rude 
but effective organization of executive machinery, con- 
servative legislation, and a sense of justice which would 
preserve to every man his own, and guarantee his rights 
to each one who. fulfilled his duties : all of which things 
were to fit the settlers on the New Hampshire Grants 
for the task of building on these foundations a true and 
loyal state. 

It may appear ill advised to apply the term conserva- 
tive to the actions of men who were doing what has 
been described. But it was simply this. They were 
not revolutionists seeking to overthrow and uproot an 
existing order of things ; they stood for the preserva- 
tion of the existing order ; they were conservers of the 
public weal. 

Let us review the really essential features of their 
work, in order to see how unfailingly constructive it was. 
Let us look now, not for the picturesque features, but 
for underlying principles. 

From the time of their first settlement and organization 
the towns of the New Hampshire Grants had by the 
terms of .their charters certain powers of self-government 



82 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

in March meeting through the election of town officers 
and the direction of town affairs. At a time when settle- 
ments were few and isolated and there was no general 
cause or public question this might well comprehend the 
government of the grants. But the courts of New York 
sought to annul these charters and by so doing destroy 
every right that was based thereon. That was a blow 
struck at the government of every town in the grants, 
and it created, therefore, an issue broader than that of 
the government of any single town. 

The towns might keep on exercising, each for itself, 
their prerogatives, but this would not be enough to 
meet the needs of a cause which was sure to become 
general. Some further organization was forced upon 
them collectively for the preservation of what they 
already possessed as individual towns. The adminis- 
trative needs were like those which confronted the 
American colonies on the eve of revolution, and it is 
instructive to note that in both cases these needs were 
met in exactly the same way, that is, by the work of 
committees. 

The first step in this work was the appointment and 
organization in the several towns of committees of safety 
to provide for the defense and security of property 
claimed by the New York litigants. And since the 
cause was a general one, in a far truer sense than the 
cause of Massachusetts was a general one among 
the American colonies at the beginning of the Revolu- 
tion, it would be the truest and most effective economy 
to provide general or cooperative protection. These 
town committees, therefore, met to provide means for 



THE DEBATABLE LAND 83 

it, and you have the next step beyond the town meeting 
in state building, and that is the convention. 

Since protection involves defense, and defense involves 
the use of force if needed to repel attack, the next step 
for the combining towns to take was to provide a mili- 
tary force. To meet this requirement you find the 
Green Mountain Boys, a crude military force, perhaps, 
raw, undisciplined, irregular, but a military force never- 
theless, and one that acted for the common weal. 

Now let us see what we have found thus far. It 
is nothing less than a government in embryo, — local 
government in town meeting, general government in 
convention, standing army in the Green Mountain Boys. 
We must admit that it was not a highly perfected form 
of government. It had no constitution; it had no judi- 
ciary; it had not a great many things which we consider 
indispensable adjuncts of government to-day. But it had 
the things it needed, and the important point to notice 
is that as fast as it needed more it was developing them. 

When the war of the Revolution came, as it did 
before this contest with New York was settled, it found 
the New Hampshire Grants with this simple machinery 
of government in good running order. Of course the 
Revolution brought with it new needs. All the emer- 
gencies of that war could not be foreseen, but it was 
pretty certain that the British would operate from 
Canada through the Champlain Valley. That alone 
would involve the collecting and officering of troops, the 
defending of frontiers, and the raising of fu'nds for gen- 
eral expenses. Then, too, this was a cause of colonies, 
not of towns merely. The New Hampshire Grants 



84 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

must act as a unit. They must be represented as a 
whole, their claims reviewed, summarized, formulated, 
and presented to Congress. Broad provision must be 
made for the broad needs imposed by a national war. 
In short, some new body was needed of a higher grade 
than these committees of safety, even when they assem- 
bled in general conference. Out of this need arose 
that series of remarkable conventions which built up 
out of the scattered townships of the New Hampshire 
Grants a strong, solidified, and stable commonwealth, 
the independent state of Vermont. 

The work of these conventions demands a separate 
chapter, but this much can be noted in passing: these 
committees, which temporarily took the case in hand 
when the separate townships first felt the need of com- 
bined effort, yielded to the more permanent organization 
of the state, just as in the separate colonies similar 
committees, which began and worked up the Revolution, 
yielded their organization to that of the United States. 
In both cases temporary bodies carried the work on 
through a transition period. In both cases independ- 
ence brought permanent burdens which such bodies 
could not well carry. In both cases the functions of 
these temporary bodies were then merged with the 
functions of a permanent government. The similarity 
is more than analogy ; it is identity of principle. 

The ''Westminster Massacre" 

If there is any one event which illuminates the state 
of affairs in the New Hampshire Grants as they passed 
over the border line between local and national politics. 



THE DEBATABLE LAND 85 

— that is, from their own conflict with New York into 
the larger conflict which the colonies as a whole waged 
against the mother country, — that event is the episode 
commonly known as the ''Westminster Massacre." It 
is an event which stands on the dim boundary between 
local and national interests and throws light in both 
directions. It was an occurrence which unified the senti- 
ments of the grants, intensified their opposition to New 
York, and roused resentment against England, under the 
cover of whose authority New York was acting. 

It is noticeable that up to this point the controversy 
with New York had involved only the western part of 
the state. Nothing had happened on the eastern side 
to indicate any great interest in the question which was 
the all-absorbing one west of the mountains. The set- 
tlers in the Connecticut Valley had shown no striking 
zeal in espousing the cause against New York ; neither 
had they been of assistance to that state in upholding 
its authority. They were remaining quiet, and for a 
good reason. Many of the grantees along the Connecti- 
cut River had surrendered their original charters and 
taken out new grants under the seal of New York. 
The oflicers of that state, therefore, had little reason to 
make themselves obnoxious in that vicinity ; while there 
was, on the other hand, no object for the settlers to 
provoke or participate in a quarrel with an authority 
which they had already recognized. 

Notwithstanding this apparent absence of sympathy 
between the eastern and western grants on this issue in 
local politics, there were strong underlying ties suffi- 
cient to bind them closely in the greater emergency 



86 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

which was to confront the American colonies as a whole. 
These settlers in the Connecticut Valley had come, like 
the others, from Massachusetts and Connecticut. They 
were in close touch with their Massachusetts neighbors. 
They were of old Puritan stock, Protestant to the bone. 
When England by the " Quebec bill " legalized the 
Roman Catholic religion in Canada, the instincts of early 
Protestantism became manifest. Lieutenant Spaulding 
of Dummerston referred to the king as the pope of Can- 
ada, a remark uncomplimentary but harmless. The royal 
faction picked it up, however, and imprisoned Spaulding 
on a charge of treason, at Westminster, Oct. 28, 1774. 

On the next day a majority of the excited inhabitants 
of Dummerston met and chose a committee of corre- 
spondence ''to join with other towns and respectable 
bodies of people, the better to secure and protect the 
rights and privileges of themselves and fellow creatures 
from the ravages and embarrassments of the British 
tyrant and his New York and other emissaries." Notice 
the union of the two issues : the British tyrant and his 
New York emissaries are at last linked together in the 
public mind. The movement thus started gained such 
headway that a large body of men from Dummerston 
and the adjoining towns met, went to Westminster, 
opened the door of the jail, and released Spaulding from 
prisonment. 

This brought matters to a crisis. If royal authority 
was to be maintained, perverters of his majesty's justice 
must be brought to punishment. But it so happened, 
opportunely for the settlers, that almost simultaneously 
with their action came news of that memorable meeting 



THE DEBATABLE LAND 8/ 

of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia on the 5th 
of September, which was followed by the closing of 
his majesty's courts throughout the land. In all the 
colonies except New York royal authority was almost 
universally suspended. 

But several months were yet to elapse before the 
session of the Cumberland County Court at Westmin- 
ster, and the adherents to the royal cause were as deter- 
mined to hold that session as their opponents were that 
it should not be held. The intervening time was there- 
fore used by both parties in preparation. Efforts were 
made to dissuade the judges from holding the court, but 
they persisted that it should be done. Some of the 
people then took possession of the courthouse in order 
to forestall the royal party. This was on March 13, 1 775. 

About sunset of that day the sheriff came with the 
court party, armed with guns, swords, and pistols, and 
demanded entrance, at the same time ordering the crowd 
to disperse. This they refused to do unless the sheriff 
ordered his men to lay aside their arms. About ten 
o'clock that night the chief justice went into the crowd 
and assured them that they should hold undisputed pos- 
session of the building till morning, when the court would 
enter without arms and hear what they had to say. A 
considerable part of the crowd then withdrew, leaving 
some men on guard in the courthouse, armed with clubs. 

Contrary to the declaration of the judge, the sheriff 
and his party approached about an hour later and again 
demanded entrance. When it was refused, they fired 
into the house. An assault was then made and the 
courthouse taken, with some twenty men in it who 



88 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

were not able to make their escape. These prisoners 
were thrown into the jail, and thither were dragged the 
bodies of the wounded men, among whom was a young 
man named William French, who was dying with five 
bullet holes in his body. 

The men who succeeded in escaping from the court- 
house when the assault was made rapidly spread the 
news of the murder, and the next day the streets of 
Westminster swarmed with angry farmers. The court 
met in the morning, but adjourned until afternoon. 
That court never reassembled. The town was too hot 
to hold the members of the court party, and the wise 
ones left at once. A jury of inquest brought in a ver- 
dict that the man was murdered by the court party, and 
several officers implicated in the killing were lodged 
in jail at Northampton, Massachusetts. An application 
for their release was made by the chief justice of New 
York, and they were allowed to go. 

These proceedings were sufficient to rouse once for 
all the spirit of opposition to New York on the eastern 
side of the mountains. In the month of April an 
assembly of people met at Westminster and renounced 
the administration of the New York government until 
such time as his majesty might settle the controversy 
and — so the petition ran — remove them from so 
''oppressive a jurisdiction." Eight days later the battle 
of Lexington was fought. His majesty had issued his last 
order that was ever observed by the American colonies. 

Thus the settlers on the east side of the mountains 
were driven to make common cause with their brethren 
on the west against New York ; thus the killing of 



THE DEBATABLE LAND 89 

William French at Westminster was the event that 
united the sentiments of the New Hampshire Grants 
and merged their issue of local politics into that of 
national politics ; thus the war of the Revolution was 
begun. The key to the whole situation lies in the fact 
that the royal officers who so violently took matters into 
their own hands at Westminster were New York officers, 
and that of all the northern colonies New York was the 
most loyal to the crown and the most lukewarm in its 
sympathy for the American cause. 

An anonymous ballad published in 1779 shows that 
the affair at Westminster was worked up along with 
other events into popular airs to infuse a more martial 
spirit into the vox poptdi. One stanza runs : 

But Vengeance let us Wreak, my Boys, 

For Matron, Maid and Spinster; 
Whose joys are fled, whose Homes are sad. 

For the Youth of Red Westminster. 

Above the grave of WilUam French at Westminster 
was placed a stone with an inscription which reflects 
both the spirit and the literature of the times. 

In Memory of William French Son to Mr. Nathaniel French 
Who Was Shot at Westminster March ye 13th 1775 by the hands 
of Cruel. Ministerial tools of Georg ye 3d in the Corthouse at a 1 1 
a Clock at Night in the 22d year of his Age. 

Here William French his Body lies 
For Murder his blood for Vengeance cries 
King Georg the third his Tory crew 
tha with a bawl his head Shot threw 
For Liberty and his Countrys Good 
He Lost his Life his Dearest blood. 



CHAPTER V 

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

Saratoga, August 20, 1777. 
The Hampshire Grants in particular, a country unpeopled and 
almost unknown in the last war, now abounds in the most active and 
most rebellious race on the continent, and hangs like a gathering storm 
on my left. — Burgoyne iti a pi'ivate letter to Lord Germaine. 

The Taking of Ticonderoga 
While Vermont was fighting her way along toward 
independent statehood, the thirteen American colonies, 
joined together, fought out a quarrel with England 
which left them an independent nation so far as nations 
can be independent. This misunderstanding in the 
Anglo-Saxon family, which goes by the name of the 
American Revolution, was so much larger than the little 
wrangle which the New Hampshire Grants were having 
with New York that it completely obscured the latter 
for the time being. We have come to a point, there- 
fore, where we shall have to turn from local politics 
to notice that larger question of national politics. Into 
the causes of the Revolution we cannot go ; of its 
progress we can only note such parts as touch the 
history of our state. 

After the expulsion of the French from the Cham- 
plain Valley, the military posts on the lake were left in 
the hands of the English. The situation, then, at the 
opening of the Revolution was this : the forts were 

90 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 91 

garrisoned by British soldiers ; the British government 
possessed Canada and its resources. This miUtary advan- 
tage would be used to operate upon the northern border 
in quelling the rebellious colonies. Along the old war 
route the British possessed the same facilities for bring- 
ing their forces into action as the French had possessed 
years before in operating against the English. 

In New England it appeared to the leading spirits 
of the Revolution that the danger of a British invasion 
from Canada would be greatly lessened if these military 
posts were taken away from the British at the start, 
before they had been strengthened by additions to the 
garrison and preparations for defense. The idea was 
conceived in several quarters. An agent who passed 
through the grants on a secret mission to Canada wrote 
to the Boston Committee of Correspondence that such 
a move would be desirable, and that the Green Moun- 
tain Boys would undertake it. Parties in Connecticut 
also matured the same project and entered at once 
upon its execution. 

After raising funds to defray the expenses of the 
expedition, the Connecticut patriots hastened to Ben- 
nington to confer with Ethan Allen. They found him 
enthusiastic, and preparations for the enterprise were 
immediately begun. In a few days Allen had at Castle- 
ton nearly two hundred volunteers. The Connecticut 
contingent had picked up some fifty men on their way to 
Castleton. The total number was sufficient to warrant 
the attempt. Presently Benedict Arnold arrived from 
Massachusetts, authorized by the Massachusetts Com- 
mittee of Safety to take charge of the expedition. 



92 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

The Green Mountain Boys preferred their own leaders, 
Ethan Allen and Seth Warner ; and although Arnold 
accompanied the expedition he was not put in command. 

To gain intelligence of the conditions at the fort a 
spy was sent into the works. In the guise of an awk- 
ward farmer who wanted to be shaved, Noah Phelps 
passed unsuspected in and out and gained the needed 
information. The march was made in two detachments 
from Castleton to the lake. One party was sent under 
Major Beach through Rutland, Pittsford, Brandon, 
Middlebury, and Whiting, a circuit of about sixty miles, 
in which they gathered recruits, to Shoreham. Allen 
meantime marched thither the remainder of the men, 
going north till they struck the old military road which 
John Stark had worked on sixteen years before and 
following that toward the lake. On the evening of the 
9th of May the detachments gathered by the lake oppo- 
site Ticonderoga, and the garrison at the old fort had 
not heard a whisper of the design. Two hundred and 
seventy men were at the water waiting to cross. 

During the night, by stratagem and stealth, boats 
were obtained to serve as transports. Under cover of 
the fleeting darkness Allen embarked with about eighty 
men, all that the boats would carry. They landed near 
the fort and sent back the boats for the others. But 
while they waited the day began to dawn, and Allen 
dared to delay no longer. He called on those who would 
follow him to raise their muskets, and every gun went 
up. He turned toward the fort, guided by a young lad 
who had played with the boys at the garrison until he 
had grown familiar with every nook and corner of the 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 93 

place. Thus in the gray of the morning the little 
company silently advanced. 

The sentry at the gate snapped his fusee at Allen, 
but it missed fire ; and the first warning which came to 
the garrison was the sound of the huzzas as the Green 
Mountain Boys formed in line on the parade ground 
within the fort, while their leader was demanding of 
Delaplace, the British commander, who stood half-clad 
at the door of his chamber, the immediate surrender 
of the works, '' in the name of the Great Jehovah and 
the Continental Congress."^ 

So in early morning on the loth of May, 1775, 
without the firing of a gun or the loss of a life, Ticon- 
deroga was taken with its garrison and stores by the 
Green Mountain Boys. One writer has thus pictured 
the situation : " Before the members of the second 
Continental Congress had breakfasted the first day of 
their session, the key to Lake Champlain and the guns 
at whose bidding General Howe was to evacuate Boston 
the next spring had been captured by a band of back- 
woodsmen under the command of New York outlaws." 
Crown Point was taken on the same day by Seth Warner, 
and with it over a hundred pieces of cannon. A fleet 
fitted up by Arnold and Allen presently sailed down the 
lake and captured an armed sloop lying at St. John's. 
The mastery of Lake Champlain was complete. 

Congress voted to pay the Green Mountain Boys for 
their services at Ticonderoga and recommended that 
a regiment be formed on the New Hampshire Grants. 

1 This is the language which Allen says he used. Tradition reports 
another version of his words, less elegant but equally forceful. 



94 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

A convention met at Dorset in July and chose officers ; 
Seth Warner was made commander. Ethan Allen was 
taken in a premature attempt to capture Montreal and 
was sent in irons to England. He was later returned 
to New York and exchanged in 1778. Warner's regi- 
ment assisted in the military operations which led to 
the taking of Montreal after its defender, Carleton, 
abandoning the city to its fate, had escaped down the 
river by night in a canoe. 

At Quebec, whither Carleton had fled, the American 
troops met with disaster. Then began a long retreat of 
the broken army back to Ticonderoga. The commander, 
Wooster, wrote to Warner as the army, defeated, sick 
with smallpox, and in the midst of a hostile country, 
began to withdraw : 

You and the valiant Green Mountain Corps are in our neigh- 
borhood. . . . You all have arms and ever stand ready to lend a 
helping hand to your brother in distress. . . . Let the men set 
out at once, by tens, twenties, thirties or fifties. I am confident 
that I shall see you here with your men in a very short time. 

He did. Warner's regiment did good service in pro- 
tecting the rear of the defeated and retreating army 
and bringing it safe to Ticonderoga. 

It would be easy to overestimate the importance of 
the capture of Ticonderoga. About a hundred pieces 
of cannon, one thirteen-inch mortar, and a number of 
swivels were captured there, and a quantity of military 
stores ; but the strategic advantage which would have 
been gained by retaining the fort was entirely lost two 
years later when the American forces abandoned it on 
the approach of Burgoyne's army. The important fact 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 95 

is that the efforts of the Green Mountain Boys placed 
it at the disposal of the American cause to use for better 
or worse. The part they took in the affair proved their 
ability, their intrepidity, and that they were as true 
patriots as could be found on the continent. 

The details of the campaign in the Champlain Valley 
for the next year we need not follow. For several 
months of the year 1776 there was a navy yard at each 
end of the lake ; the British at St. John's, the Americans 
at Skenesboro, each trying to outstrip the other in pre- 
paring a fleet which would command its waters. It was 
hard business building a navy on inland waters from 
green timber freshly cut in the forest and dragged by 
hand to the lake side, with no ship stores except such as 
could be brought from long distances over almost impass- 
able roads. The ship carpenters of New England were 
busy at the ports ; naval construction without skilled 
help was no easy task. In this respect the British had 
an advantage. Six armed vessels were sent from Eng- 
land, brought by water to the Falls of Chambly, and 
those which were too large to be hauled over the rapids 
were taken apart and put together again above. The 
smaller ones were dragged up entire. 

Arnold took command of the homemade American 
flotilla, sailed boldly down the lake toward Isle la Motte 
to meet the foe in October, and having met him sailed 
back again as fast as possible in the darkness of night, 
thoroughly convinced of the hopelessness of fighting a 
force of twice his strength. He sailed directly through 
the enemy's lines, in the darkness and fog, without being 
discovered, and the next morning was entirely out of 



96 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

sight of the British. They set out in full chase and, 
the wind being favorable, overtook the American fleet 
about noon on October 13, a few leagues from Crown 
Point. Finding escape as impossible as victory, with 
the British at his heels, Arnold ran his fleet aground 
at the mouth of the Otter Creek and burned the ships to 
the water's edge. 

Delayed by the south winds, the British tardily took 
Crown Point, to find it only a dismantled fortress from 
which the Americans had moved, bag and baggage. The 
British commander, Carleton, then threatened Ticon- 
deroga. But the south wind which had so long held 
him back had proved a daily blessing to the fortress. 
The works were strengthened, and day by day reen- 
forcements came trooping through the forest to its 
defense. Two regiments were temporarily furnished by 
the New Hampshire Grants. After a month of recon- 
noitering and contemplation Carleton reembarked his 
army at Crown Point and sailed back to Canada. 

We can sum up the whole campaign thus far by 
saying that in 1775 the Americans drove the British 
from the lake, took Montreal, and invaded Canada as 
far as Quebec; while in 1776 the British drove the 
Americans out of Canada and as far back on the lake 
as Ticonderoga. 

The Battles of Hubbardton and Bennington 

In 1777 the British began a plan of campaign one part 
of which was to consist of gaining and occupying the 
two valleys of Lake Champlain and the Hudson River. 
By doing this they would hold an unbroken military line 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 97 

from Canada to New York harbor and cut off the New 
England colonies from the rest of the country. 

This particular feature of the plan was not one which 
the settlers of Vermont could anticipate with any pleas- 
ure. Life, liberty, and' the pursuit of happiness might 
be seriously interfered with along the western border. 
The settlers of Vermont began to feel a greater common 




The San Croire Mill (long since burned) and the Bridge 

OVER WHICH Hessians marched to the 

Battle of Bennington 

interest with the American colonies. Their homes were 
again at stake. They had come from Connecticut, from 
Massachusetts, from Rhode Island to the grants, and 
had left behind them ties of blood and friendship. They 
possessed the same hardy traits as their kinsmen, for 
they were bred in the same conditions. They knew 
what it meant to have their independence threatened. 
They were essentially part and parcel of the American 
colonies in this cause. 



98 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

The command of that section of the British army which 
was to move south from Canada was given to General 
Burgoyne. He met with only slight opposition on Lake 
Champlain and took Ticonderoga without a blow. He 
secured there one hundred and twenty-eight pieces of 
cannon, besides shipping and bateaux, provisions and 
military stores. It is said that over seventeen hundred 
barrels of flour and seventy tons of salt provisions fell 
into the hands of the British, besides a large drove of 
cattle. It looked as though Burgoyne was equipped for 
a triumphant march through the woods to the Hudson 
River and so on to New York. 

But on the portage from Lake George to the Hudson 
River luck began to turn. General Schuyler, unable to 
meet him on equal terms in open fighting, used every 
resource possible to retard his progress. He cut trees 
of the forest across his path ; he filled up the creeks ; 
he broke down the bridges ; he put every conceivable 
obstacle in his way. It took Burgoyne fifty days to 
march his army seventy-five miles. The delay gave 
New England militiamen time to gather along the line 
of advance. 

Meantime the Americans had met with a disastrous 
defeat at Hubbardton. As soon as the British had dis- 
covered the retreat of the Americans from Ticonderoga 
they started after them in eager pursuit. St. Clair's 
plan had been to send the provisions and stores by 
galleys to Skenesboro, and to march the army thither 
by land through Hubbardton and Castleton. All might 
have gone well had not a French officer, on abandoning 
his house, imprudently set fire to it. The result was 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



99 



doubly disastrous. The light of the flames revealed to 
the British the operations of the American forces, and 
the knowledge that they were discovered threw the 
latter into confusion. 

However, the rear guard were brought off in good 
order about four o'clock of the morning of July 6. The 
troops on arriving 
at Hubbardton 
halted for a time, 
Seth Warner was 
put in command 
of the rear guard 
and the stragglers 
who kept coming 
in. St. Clair went 
on to Castleton. 
At about seven 
o'clock the next 
morning the pur- 
suing British de- 
tachments, who 
had slept on their 
arms a few miles 
away that night, 
attacked the American rear and defeated it after a sharp 
fight, completely routing the entire force with severe loss. 
The galleys on the lake were also overtaken by British 
frigates and gunboats near Skenesboro, now Whitehall. 
On the approach of the frigates the Americans aban- 
doned the galleys and succeeded in blowing up three of 
them. The remaining two fell into the enemy's hands. 
L.ofC. 



^^H 1 a.itya A Wil}%w; . 1 


''^3^^| 



Monument marking Stark's Camping 
Ground 



100 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



Notwithstanding these successes, the troubles which 
fell upon Burgoyne were stripping his army of its 
efficiency. The provisions taken at Ticonderoga went 
rapidly during his slow progress. Transportation was 

poor ; fresh supplies 
were not abundant. 
From the latter part 
of July to the middle 
of August his army 
was busy bringing for- 
ward supplies and 
bateaux from Lake 
George. But his 
utmost diligence was 
insufficient to meet 
his needs. It became 
evident that if he was 
to carry his campaign 
through with success 
he must draw on the 
supplies of the enemy 
to replenish his own 
stores. The resources 
in his immediate vicinity were soon exhausted. Reports 
came to him that at Bennington, guarded only by the 
militia, lay a large quantity of provisions gathered for 
the use of the American army. He determined to secure 
those stores for the British army. 

1 This portrait of Major General John Stark was made, on the order 
of the legislature of New Hampshire, by U. D. Tenney, from an origi- 
nal sketch by Miss Hannah Crowninshield in 1810, Stark then being 
eighty-two years of age. 




•John Stark 1 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



lO] 



To execute this move he placed a select body of Ger- 
man troops, some Canadians, and about a hundred Indians 
under the command of Colonel Baum. To facilitate oper- 
ations further he ordered another detachment to post itself 




Plan of the Battle of Bennington 



on the east bank of the Hudson, opposite Saratoga; while 
still another he sent under Breyman to station itself at 
Battenkill, within supporting distance of the main body 
under Baum. Meantime farmers with flintlock and 



102 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

powderhorn were flocking to Bennington from all sides. 
Seth Warner rallied them from the Vermont towns, while 
New Hampshire responded to the call with a splendid bri- 
gade under a splendid leader, none other than John Stark. 

Since we left this man cutting the road from Number 
Four to Crown Point he had seen much service. Second 
to none as a leader of rangers in the last French and 
Indian war, and having served at Bunker Hill, he was a 
man whom the farmer militia of New Hampshire might 
well delight to follow. He joined personal bravery to 
generalship of the highest order, as his preparations for 
the encounter at Bennington testify ; for a better piece 
of military work it would be hard to find in the Revolu- 
tion. Beginning with a scattered militia, with almost 
no supplies, — think of an army with one pair of bullet 
molds, with powder half spoiled, and destitute even of 
camp kettles! — with a range of mountains and a stretch 
of wilderness to cross by wretched roads, he appeared 
at Manchester in an almost incredibly short time, with 
the forces of Massachusetts and New Hampshire organ- 
ized and well in hand. Companies of Vermont rangers 
joined him, and accompanied by Warner he moved on 
toward Bennington. 

As to tactics Stark had no choice. With no cavalry, 
no artillery, no commissariat, no transportation, no provi- 
sions to keep an army in idleness, he was simply forced to 
attack. It made no difference that half the troops were 
without bayonets ; he had men and his men had implicit 
confidence in him. Already he had shown a celerity and 
precision of movement with an irregular force in the face 
of tremendous difficulties. This was a premonition of 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 103 

success; and it was about the only one that could be found 
in the situation as the two armies lay fronting each other 
on the eve of battle. 

The story of the fight itself may be briefly told. When 
Baum found that he was to be opposed he halted in a 






David Robinson Samuel Fay 

Benjamin Harvvood 1 Abisha Kingsley Aaron Robinson Samuel Safford i 

The Last Surviving Veterans of the Battle of Bennington 

(From a daguerreotype taken in 1848) 

favorable position in Hoosac, New York, near the present 
state line, sent back to Breyman for reenforcements, 
and began to intrench. A rain on the 15 th of August 

^ Benjamin Hanvood was the first male child born in Bennington. 
Captain Samuel Safford was the first man to scale the Tory l)reastworks 
at the battle of Bennington. 



04 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



prevented immediate attack and gave the British a chance 
still further to strengthen their trenches. On the morn- 
ing of the 1 6th Stark sent two hundred men to attack 

the rear of the enemy, 
three hundred to 
attack the rear of the 
enemy's right, two 
hundred to attack the 
extreme right, while 
he and Warner led the 
direct assault. The 
fighting began about 
three o'clock in the 
afternoon ; it lasted 
two hours. Stark 
said: ** It was the 
hottest I ever saw." 
The enemy were all 
killed or taken pris- 
oners. 

Hardly had the 
prisoners been col- 
lected and sent back 
to the Bennington 
meetinghouse under 
guard, when Brey- 
man's reenforcements 
came up and a second 
battle began. Most opportunely, Warner's regiment 
arrived from Manchester and engaged them. At sun- 
down the British gave way and were pursued till dark. 




Bennington Monument 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 105 

A thousand stand of arms and six hundred prisoners 
were left in possession of the Americans. 

In point of mihtary importance this battle ranks far 
higher than the dramatic capture of Ticonderoga. It 
was an actual engagement which tested both generalship 
and fighting capacity to the utmost. It was a force of 
farmers fighting a force of regulars. It preserved for 
the Americans the supplies which were the great object 
of the expedition. It protected the territory eastward 
from military operations and from any further danger of 
invasion. It depleted Burgoyne's forces. It was the 
first of a series of disasters which led to his surren- 
der, the turning point of the war, and the recognition 
of American independence. Burgoyne's own opinion, 
expressed shortly after the battle in a letter to Lord 
George Germaine, was as follows: ''The chief subject 
of regret on our side, after that which any loss of gallant 
men naturally occasions, is the disappointment of not 
obtaining live cattle, and the loss of time in bringing 
forward the magazines." 

On the American side it was strictly a people's fight, 
not directed by the government, not provided for by 
the government, not fought by a regular force, not com- 
manded by a regular officer. While the news of the 
splendid victory was on the way to Congress, that body 
was publicly censuring the man who won it, and con- 
demning the course of the New Hamipshire Assembly 
in allowing Stark the separate command which made 
the victory possible. It is to the credit of Congress 
that when the result of the battle was known it passed 
a vote of thanks for Stark's services and promoted him 



io6 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



to the rank of brigadier general in the regular army. 
Something over one hundred years later the corner 
stone was laid of that monument at Bennington which 
pays a fitting tribute to the scene and deed. In the 
portico of the State House at Montpelier one may 
see the two brass cannon which were taken on that 
day from the Hessians. 

Some Results of the War 

With the surrender of Burgoyne on the 17th of 
October war in the immediate vicinity of this state 

ceased, the danger 
of invasion came to 
an end, and the 
yeomen were able 
to return to their 
homes. Forts were 
temporarily occu- 
pied at Peacham, 
Corinth, Bethel, 
and Barnard. A 
fort was maintained 
at Newbury dur- 
ing the war, and the cutting of the military road from 
Newbury to Hazen's Notch was accomplished. 

The war brought great hardship, uncertainty, and 
danger to the people of the state. In some sections it 
pretty effectually broke up the western settlements. At 
the time of Burgoyne's invasion settlements had been 
made in nearly every town in what are now Bennington 
and Rutland counties and in some towns north of the 




One of the Cannon taken at the 
Battee of Bennington 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



107 



latter. The beginning of his invasion produced great 
excitement, and this increased with every advancing 
step of the army. As he passed through the lake the 
settlers along the shore withdrew toward the south, 
and by the time he 
was on the Hudson 
River there were few 
farms north of the 
present county of 
Bennington which 
were occupied by 
their owners. 

The British had a 
notion that as soon as 
their army had occu- 
pied the country the 
inhabitants of this 
state would flock to 
the royal standard. 
Burgoyne attempted 
to hasten this much 
desired end by issuing 
a proclamation which 
breathed out threat- 
enings and slaughter 
against those who clung to the American cause but prom- 
ised protection to those who should join him or remain 
quietly at home. But the Green Mountain Boys flocked 
to other standards than his, and by the time he wrote 
from his camp near Saratoga to Lord Germaine, Burgoyne 
himself was fully aware of the temper of the people. 




Memorial Monument 



io8 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

During the period of Burgoyne's visitation companies 
of armed men scoured the country searching for recruits 
and provisions. Indian scouting parties not infrequently 
put in an unwelcome appearance in the neighborhood of 
frontier towns. Although they rarely molested the 
inhabitants, their presence was a menace totally destruc- 
tive to peace of mind. The British control of Lake 
Champlain placed the western borders at the mercy of 
their Indian allies if they chose to reap the harvest. 

A few instances will illustrate the prevailing con- 
ditions. Weybridge was settled in 1775, in almost 
unbroken forest, by settlers who came up the creek in 
boats and located on the banks. The little settlement 
was visited in 1778 by Indians and Tories, the property 
destroyed, and the people taken as prisoners to Quebec. 
Occasionally on similar raids the women and children 
were left behind in a condition worse than captivity; 
for they had no protection from the wild beasts, no shel- 
ter save the cellar of some ruined home, and perhaps 
no food. 

The severest blow which fell on any settlement dur- 
ing the war was the raid on Royalton in 1780. It was 
originally designed for the purpose of capturing Lieu- 
tenant Whitcomb at Newbury, who was said to have 
wantonly shot and robbed a British officer in 1776. The 
party consisted of about three hundred men, mostly 
Indians. On their way up the Winooski River — the 
old ''French road" — they fell in with a party of 
hunters from Newbury, who told them that the town was 
anticipating the attack and was in a state of defense. 
The story saved Newbury but brought disaster to 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 109 

Royalton, for thither the party now turned. The place 
was laid in ashes, a few men were killed and most of 
the remainder taken prisoners. They were well treated 
on their way to Canada and were liberated in the 
following summer. 

After this raid alarm was so universal throughout the 
state that the shouts of a surveying party or the burn- 
ing of a pile of brush in a back pasture was enough to 
spread terror through the countryside. At Berkshire, 
even after Burgoyne's defeat, it was deemed best to 
remove the women and children to Connecticut to avoid 
the danger from strolling bands of Indians. Such a trip 
was actually made, under the escort of a few soldiers, 
the party going through the wilderness by blazed trees, 
camping in the woods at night, running constant dangers 
from wild beasts and Indians, and enduring perils as 
great as those from which they fled. 

When the enemy were in any neighborhood every 
device was resorted to for the concealment and preser- 
vation of property. Cattle were driven back to the 
mountains ; the family barrels of pork and beef were 
hidden in the earth. The settlers plundered the houses 
of suspected Tories as mercilessly as they anticipated 
that their own might be plundered by the British. 
To be known as a sympathizer with the crown or an 
allegiant to the British cause was to be stripped of 
everything, even to the very clotheshnes. 

When hostilities ceased in the immediate vicinity the 
state waxed in wealth and population, even during the 
remainder of the war. The reasons for this we shall 
presently^ learn. Summing up the situation, it may be 



no HISTORY OF VERMONT 

said that Vermont gained more from the Revolution 
than she lost. Perhaps no state gained more at lower 
cost. She came out of the war with far more than she 
carried into it. Between the time of Burgoyne's com- 
ing and the battle of Bennington her people had formed 
a state. The New Hampshire Grants ceased to be, and 
Vermont began. The telling of that story needs a 
chapter by itself. After reading it you will probably 
say that Vermont politics at least did not suffer much 
by reason of the Revolution. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE GODS OF THE HILLS 

Westminster Court House, 
January 15, 1777. 
This convention, whose members are duly chosen by the free voice 
of their constituents in the several towns, on the New Hampshire 
Grants, in meeting assembled, in our own names, and in behalf of our 
constituents, do hereby proclaim and publicly declare, that the dis- 
trict of territory comprehending and usually known by the name and 
description of the New Hampshire Grants, of right ought to be and is 
hereby declared forever hereafter to be considered as a free and inde- 
pendent jurisdiction 6r state. — Extract from Vermonfs declaration of 
independence. 

How Vermont was made ; the Conventions of 
THE New Hampshire Grants 

The above extract may be called Vermont's declaration 
of independence. This and a revised form prepared for 
the press are a comprehensive and authoritative expres- 
sion of what had come to be a matter of fact and was 
demonstrated so to be in fourteen years of independent 
statehood which followed. It is in view of this that we 
may say that Vermont got more out of the Revolution 
than she put into it. So far as her share in it was 
concerned it was a valuable investment. It bore lighter 
upon her than upon any colony ; it swelled her popula- 
tion ; it gave her military honor ; it developed her states- 
men; it gave her people a common interest and unified 
their sentiments; it strengthened her for her contest with 



112 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

New York ; and it made it possible for her to become in 
name and deed what she claimed to be, an independent 
republic. 

The incidence of the Revolution, following as it did 
the already sharply defined contest with New York, gave 
a magnificent opportunity to the people of the New 
Hampshire Grants to develop their incipient machinery 
of self-government into the form of a commonwealth. 
Local self-government they had possessed from their 
earliest days of settlement. We have also seen cooper- 
ative efforts made on the part of several towns to resist 
the execution of repugnant measures of New York 
authorities. Conventions of committees were finally 
held to assume the management of affairs in this espe- 
cial emergency. But such needs were unusual and irreg- 
ular for a state, not permanent and not in line with the 
normal development of civic problems. 

There would come a time, if the grants were ever to 
reach the dignity of statehood, when the demand would 
be for a civic machinery of permanent and high order. 
These emergency needs, this emergency government, 
would pass away when the particular necessity for its 
creation had passed. The needs of a state are endur- 
ing, ever growing, and arise from an expanding life 
within as well as from pressure of forces exerted from 
without. It was the development of her inner life that 
wrought in Vermont both the need and the capacity for 
statehood. The need was constitutional. 

To approach the subject in its simplest form let us 
follow the historical steps in the growth of this consti- 
tutional need. If you turn back to the section entitled 



THE GODS OF THE HILLS 1 13 

" Beginnings of Statecraft," you will recall the simple 
government that existed before the Revolution, and the 
remark that the war brought a necessity for some body 
of a higher grade than existed before to represent the 
grants as a whole. That need developed the conven- 
tions which we are about to consider. 

These conventions were composed of representatives 
or delegates sent by the different towns. The first one 
was called by circular letter and was held at Dorset 
in July, 1775. Its principal work was to choose field 
officers and others to take charge of the military activi- 
ties brought on by the war. This was a necessity almost 
wholly due to the colonial revolutionary movement. 

But the second convention revealed something dif- 
ferent. It also was held at Dorset, in January, 1776. 
It provided certain measures designed to regulate the 
internal affairs of the state, such as the suppression of 
mobs and turbulence and the maintenance of order and 
peace. Here is something that is not purely a necessity 
produced by the Revolution ; it is such an internal need 
as any state must provide for to-day. We have, there- 
fore, in the work of this convention the beginning of a 
civil establishment for the grants, a new order of things. 
It illustrates the relation between the administrative 
needs of a state and its expanding inner life. It is an 
example of what gives rise to statecraft. 

The work of the third convention, which was held at 
Dorset in July of the same year, reflects the increasing 
requirements which are being placed on the grants. 
There is more business to be done, and business of 
a constitutional nature. The question of joining in 



114 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

association with New Hampshire comes up, also the ques- 
tion of the observance of New York laws within the 
grants ; while the relation of the grants as a whole to the 
national government appears in the appointment of agents 
who are to be sent to Congress. Observe that these dif- 
ferent items of business are due partly to the war and 
partly to the civic needs of the state. 

In the fourth convention, held at Dorset in Septem- 
ber, 1776, the same combination of local and national 
business is repeated. The exigencies of war are made 
a reason for crowding the demands of the grants for a 
separate government. The convention passed a com- 
pact or covenant to stand by the cause of American 
liberty, and appointed a board of war with regulations 
regarding the militia. But it also voted not to accept 
New York laws and stated the project for forming the 
New Hampshire Grants into a separate district. State- 
hood is clearly projected, and the capacity of the grants 
to administer their internal police is stated in a manner 
which involves state legislation, for if New York laws 
are not to be observed the necessity of making laws for 
themselves becomes apparent. 

This was the last convention held at Dorset ; but the 
fifth convention, held at Westminster in October of the 
same year, carried on the work by providing for the publi- 
cation of pamphlets on the subject of forming a separate 
state and of not uniting with New York. If it had not been 
for the Revolution, such proceedings would have involved 
the grants in an immediate crisis with New York. The 
truth of our proposition that the Revolution made possible 
the statehood of Vermont is beginning to appear. 



THE GODS OF THE HILLS I15 

If we now take a survey of the events covered in the 
five preceding paragraphs, we find that a great deal has 
happened. Beginning with a group of towns which had 
no bond of union except sentiment and a similar neces- 
sity, and with no central or constitutional authority to 
represent them, we find developed in little more than 
the space of one year a central body competent to pro- 
vide for all the needs of a state as fully as any American 
commonwealth then in existence, with agencies through 
which it could communicate with the Congress, regulate 
its internal police, organize and develop the machinery 
of further government, and secure a satisfactory referen- 
dum to justify its procedure. The four conventions of 
the year 1776 show that Vermont was making as rapid 
strides toward independence as any civic body in America. 

At Westminster on the 15th of January, 1777, was 
held the sixth in this series of conventions and the one 
that promulgated the declaration of independence for 
the state. The action of this convention, if read alone, 
would seem to be of the highest importance ; read in 
the light of the work which the four preceding conven- 
tions had accomplished, it appears to be only the natural 
and fitting culmination of what had transpired in the 
previous year. It was reported that three fourths of 
the inhabitants of the grants favored the formation of 
a separate state. The declaration of independence was 
reported to the convention at an adjourned session two 
days later, was then adopted, and sent with a petition 
to Congress. 

This step was the culmination of the work of the 
New Hampshire Grants. It is equally important to 



ii6 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



note that it was also the beginning of the work of the 
state of Vermont. The burden assumed by this decla- 
ration meant exactly the same for the state of Vermont 
as that involved in the federal Declaration of Independ- 
ence meant for the United States. We are accustomed 
to think of them as achievements ; they are only declara- 
tions. They are not fulfillments, but only beginnings. 
We call them declarations of independence ; they are full 
of self-imposed restrictions, limitations, and obligations. 




The Old Constitution House at Windsor 



It is unfortunate that we have no full report of the 
seventh convention, which was held at Windsor June 4, 
1777. The name of the state, which in the first decla- 
ration had been New Connecticut, was changed to Ver- 
mont. A committee was appointed to draft a constitution 
for the new state ; a fast was proclaimed ; and exclusive 
jurisdiction was assumed by the state of Vermont. 

The eighth convention, like the seventh, left no offi- 
cial record, and there is probably no full account of its 



THE GODS OF THE HILLS 



17 



proceedings. It was held in troublous times. Its work, 
however, was of prime importance, for it was this eighth 
convention, held in the old ** constitution house" at 
Windsor, that established the constitution and frame of 
government for our state. The convention met July 2, 
1777, and while in session received news of the advance 
of Burgoyne. Half the members had come directly 
from their regiments. The families of the president 
and other members were in impending danger. Imme- 




Rkcent View of t 



'ITi:tion House 



diate adjournment was made impossible by the sudden 
coming of a July thunder storm of unusual severity. 
While the convention waited in the darkened hall for 
the storm to cease, it passed, article by article, the con- 
stitution of our state. 

Not only was the independence of Vermont made 
possible by the American Revolution, but it was also 
made imperative by the American Declaration of 
Independence. A broad view of the whole situation 



Il8 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

will show the truth of this proposition. When the Ameri- 
can colonies declared themselves independent of Great 
Britain, the dispute between New York and the New 
Hampshire Grants was pending decision by the only 
authority which both disputants would recognize as their 
arbiter. The colonies were subjects of Great Britain. 
The king of England was their fountain of justice. 
The Declaration of American Independence absolved 
the colonies from all allegiance to Great Britain, and 
her fountain of justice was for them no more. 

What then remained to be done ? There was no 
longer any earthly power whose claims as a superior 
both disputants would admit. The settlers on the 
grants had been removed from the jurisdiction of New 
Hampshire by the king's Order in Council of 1764. 
They had never from that day submitted to the actual 
exercise of New York's sovereignty. New York was 
not their sovereign. The king of England was their 
sovereign. Now that his arbitrament was thrown aside 
— for even if Vermont would admit it New York would 
not — there was nothing for the New Hampshire Grants 
to do but maintain their own independence. 

That meant no longer independence of New York 
alone, but of the world. Organization became unavoid- 
able for the emergencies of war and domestic govern- 
ment ; and organization once begun the declaration of 
purpose was pertinent. It was also timely, for the 
same sentiments were evoked and the same model fol- 
lowed as those which had inspired the united colonies. 
These colonies could hardly fail to recognize the example 
which they had set. Nothing could have placed Vermont 



THE GODS OF THE HILLS 119 

in a more commanding position than this simple, strong 
announcement of her purpose. The logic of events was 
on her side. The appeal was powerful and in touch with 
the times, for not a state except New York could utter 
a protest. 

Note. — In the history of our state the work of these conventions 
should never be forgotten. They were extremely simple bodies — one 
house, a supreme legislative and executive power, elected by the people, 
responsible to the people. These bodies assumed the jurisdiction of 
the grants, furnished them with a government, declared them to be a 
free and independent state, and gave that state its constitution. It is 
worthy of note that the constitution was modeled after that of Penn- 
sylvania, which in turn goes back to William Penn's frame of govern- 
ment of 1682. 



CHAPTER VII 

AN INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC 

Bennington, July 25, 1780. 
Sir : Vermont, being a free and independent state, have denied the 
authority of Congress to judge of their jurisdiction, . . . for it is utterly 
incompatible with the rights and prerogatives of an independent state 
to be under the control or arbitrament of any other power. . . . The 
cloud that has hovered over Vermont, since the ungenerous claims of 
New Hampshire and Massachusetts Bay, has been seen, and its motions 
carefully observed by this government ; who expected that Congress 
would have averted the storm: but disappointed in this, and unjustly 
treated as the people, over whom I preside, conceive themselves to be 
in this affair, yet blessed by Heaven, with a constancy of mind, and 
connexions abroad, as an honest, valient and brave people, are necessi- 
tated to declare to your Excellency, to Congress, and to the world, that, 
as life, liberty and the rights of the people, intrusted to them by God, 
are inseparable, so they do not expect to be justified in the eye of 
Heaven, or that posterity would call them blessed, if they should, 
tamely, surrender any part. — Gove7-nor Chittenden to the President 0/ 
Congress. 

Internal Conditions 

The full story of fourteen years' independent govern- 
ment is needed in order really to understand what 
Vermont was at the time of her admission into the 
Union. On the one hand, on the industrial side there 
was the multiplication of new homes which in their 
beginnings were very much like the homes of earlier 
days and of which we shall learn more presently. On 
the other hand there was a continued development of 
statecraft, which in this period revealed a capacity for 



AN INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC 



12: 



diplomacy as striking in its way as the more constructive 
work which we have just been considering. 

The process of home-making went on, taking a north- 
ward direction, until at length it penetrated nearly all 
sections of the state. Meantime the older settlements 
became more thrifty in appearance, established new 
industries, and prospered. Men grown well-to-do in 
the older communities repeated their successes in the 
newer, entering 
them now as small 
capitalists, building 
the mills and assist- 
ing in the work of 
more rapid settle- 
ment than that of 
earlier days. The 
arms of commerce 
began to reach up 
into the little repub- 
lic of the hills. 
While this went on, 
there is that other 

story, the story of a long and persistent attempt to gain 
for the state admission to the Union. This attempt was 
long frustrated by New York, who still insisted on her 
claim to the grants. 

It is a point worth remembering that, in spite of the 
dangers and uncertainties of settling in the state during 
the Revolution, Vermont was by comparison not the 
worst place in which to live. There were greater dan- 
gers and uncertainties elsewhere. She was free from 




Vermont Flag 



122 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

many of the burdens which the colonies had taken upon 
themselves in this great war. Her support to the war 
was purely voluntary ; her taxes were light ; she never 
had hung about her neck the financial millstone of 
irredeemable paper money ; her lands were cheap and 
inducements were strong to incoming settlers. 

It was a point of self-interest for Vermont to promote 
as rapid a settlement as possible in this period. The 
more settlers she obtained, the stronger she would be 
to maintain a position that while unique among the 
commonwealths of America was at the same time some- 
what precarious. As the armies of Washington melted 
away by desertion, not a few of the self-retired veterans 
found their search for quiet homes leading them into 
the woods of Vermont. The families established here 
throve prodigiously, and there were few drones. Men, 
muscle, and courage were all that were needed to trans- 
form the wooded state into a thrifty commonwealth of 
husbandmen and freeholders. The transformation went 
on during the years of the Revolution and those which 
followed. In this way, too, Vermont was getting more 
out of the war than she put into it. 

In 1 77 1 a rough census showed that about seven 
thousand people inhabited the state. Forty-six hundred 
were east of the mountains and twenty-five hundred 
west. Ten years later the population was thirty thou- 
sand. In 1 79 1 it was, in round numbers, eighty-five 
thousand. It is probable that at least ten thousand 
people came into the state during the war. 

After her declaration of independence the state 
assumed the proprietorship of lands. In 1779 the 



Lake\ \ 

Mernframagoc 




Vermont at the Close of the Revolution 



AN INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC 123 

legislature formulated plans for the making of grants. 
They were not unlike the plan of Benning Wentworth. 
Townships were to be six miles square, with seventy rights 
or lots in each. Five of these were for public uses, — one 
for the support of a college, one for a county grammar 
school, one for an Enghsh school, one for the support of 
preaching, and one for the first settled minister. To set- 
tlers the prices of lots were made low, — what would be 
equivalent to from seven to ten cents an acre for the 
three hundred and thirty acres or thereabouts in a lot. 

These inducements, the vigor of state administration, 
the assurance of protection for private rights, the Hght 
burdens of taxation, the economy in state management, 
— the revenues from the sale of lands were nearly 
enough to pay expenses, — all tended to attract settlers 
and build up the state. 

And yet conditions were far from peaceful and orderly. 
There were many conflicting interests, and the inhabit- 
ants were by no means all of one mind. We must 
remember that in all the states during and after the 
Revolution conditions were very disorderly. Social and 
political and economic disturbances, due in large part 
to the war itself, wrought havoc with the normal order 
of development and made turbulence and lawlessness 
rampant. In Vermont there were a few causes of dis- 
turbance which did not exist elsewhere. Those settlers 
who still held land under New York grants remained 
in favor of New York jurisdiction, and they conse- 
quently opposed the independence of Vermont. 

Such men, especially in the southeastern part of 
the state, in the vicinity of Guilford and Brattleboro, 



124 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

took occasion to resist the authority of Vermont. The 
governor of New York encouraged them, and they 
organized in opposition to the state and proposed to 
resist by force the collection of taxes and drafting 
of men for military service. In Guilford and some 
other towns the differences were so intense that each 
party had a town organization of its own, with its 
own set of officers. There were thus two civil organ- 
izations in such towns, one rendering allegiance to 
New York, the other to Vermont. Excitement rose 
to such a pitch that there were skirmishes between 
the two factions, and social order came to an end. 
Relatives and neighbors were arrayed against each 
other, and even physicians could not visit the sick 
without passes and permits from various committees. 
Finally Ethan Allen was directed to call out the 
militia to enforce laws and suppress disturbances in 
Windham County, which he set about to do with his 
characteristic vigor. 

Notwithstanding his energetic measures, disturb- 
ances became so serious that in the winter of 1783- 
1784 radical measures had to be taken against the 
New York element. Before the close of that year the 
«' Yorkers " found most of their property confiscated 
and themselves so harshly handled by civil and military 
authorities that they went in large numbers to New 
York. The minority that remained took oath of alle- 
giance to this state. The years following saw even more 
serious disturbances across the line in the neighboring 
state of Massachusetts, disturbances which culminated 
in Shays's rebellion. Neither the disturbances nor the 



AN INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC 125 

conditions in Vermont were exceptionally bad. The 
times were such as to foster discontent and breed 
riotous and disorderly conduct, especially among the 
debtor and more thriftless classes. 

In respect to public finances the conditions in Ver- 
mont were better than in almost any other state. As 
has been said before, the state paid her own troops 
during the war and had no private debt, while she 
was free from the great burden of public debt which 
so handicapped the other states, because she had never 
been a member of the confederation. But many of her 
inhabitants were extremely poor, not a few involved in 
personal debt, and hard cash was a rare thing to see. 
Consequently collection of debts bore with severity on 
the people, and lawyers and sheriffs were in Vermont 
as elsewhere an unpopular class. 

The prevalent hostility toward them is revealed in a 
burst of polemic song which appeared in the Vermont 
Gazette Feb. 28, 1784. 

Whereas the Assembly of the State 
Have dar'd audaciously of late, 
With purpose vile, the constitution 
To break, or make a wicked use on, 
By making laws and raising taxes. 
And viler still (so truth of fact is) 
By keeping up that smooth tongu'd clan, 
For ages curs'd by God and man, 
Attornies, whose eternal gabble 
Confounds the unexperienced rabble. 

Then lawyers from the courts expell, 
Cancel our debts and all is well — 



126 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

But should they finally neglect 

To take the measures we direct, 

Still fond of their own power and wisdom, . 

We '11 find effectual means to twist 'em. 

Some disturbances occurred in what are now Windsor 
and Rutland counties. But the Assembly did all that 
could be honorably asked, even by poor debtors. It 
provided for payment ** in kind " when creditors were 
insistent upon immediate payment of debts. The follow- 
ing act is self-explanatory. 

Whereas, through a scarcity of a circulating medium, it is very 
difficult to satisfy all debts in specie. Therefore, Be it enacted^ &c 
that neat cattle, beef, pork, sheep, wheat, rye, and Indian corn, shall 
be a lawful tender, if turned out by the debtor, on any execution. 

In such cases the creditor must receive at its value the 
tender of goods appraised by men under oath. Similar 
remedial legislation was applied for some years when the 
stress of collections was really oppressive. This relieved 
the situation temporarily ; in time industry and business 
brought general prosperity and permanent relief. 

Green Mountain Diplomacy 

In the condition of affairs which has been very briefly 
and imperfectly described in the foregoing section it 
became a task requiring no small skill on the part of 
political leaders to steer such a course in maintaining the 
independence of Vermont as not to wreck their ship of 
state on the shoals of national politics or the reefs of 
domestic woes. While Vermont was pleading for admis- 
sion to the Union, the action of Congress and the 



AN INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC 127 

neighboring states was such as to promote her internal 
troubles and bring her independence into jeopardy. 

After the king's order of 1764 limiting New Hamp- 
shire's jurisdiction to the western bank of the Connecti- 
cut River that state had made no attempt to interfere 
with Vermont's affairs until such interference was in- 
duced by Vermont herself through a very unfortunate 
complication. The interest of certain towns lying in New 
Hampshire just east of the Connecticut River caused 
them to desire union with Vermont rather than continue 
longer under the government of New Hampshire. The 
request came at a time when Vermont politics were in 
such a state that the Assembly felt compelled to grant 
it. Consequently these New Hampshire towns were 
adopted like foster children by the state of Vermont. 

No sooner was this done than New Hampshire natu- 
rally enough began strenuous protests and brought about 
still further compUcations by reviving her old claim to 
the jurisdiction of the grants. So the matter, when pre- 
sented to the Continental Congress, took a form which 
was decidedly unfavorable to Vermont. New Hampshire 
and New York were again contending for the same terri- 
tory, and it began to look as though Congress would 
like to dispose of the case in the easiest way, by dividing 
the state between the two claimants along the line of 
the Green Mountain range. 

Vermont statesmen then saw the mistake which had 
been made in attempting to incorporate part of New 
Hampshire, and sought to retrace their steps. Very 
evidently policy dictated a separation from the New 
Hampshire towns. But states and nations as well as 



128 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

individuals often find that it is not so easy to get out of 
a bad situation as it is to get into one. So it proved 
in this case ; for when these towns were separated 
from Vermont along with them went neighboring towns 
on the Vermont side of the river. Vermont was dis- 
membered. As if this were not trouble enough, Mas- 
sachusetts presently entered the contest by asserting 
claims to territory north of the boundary line, which, it 
must be confessed, was somewhat uncertain. This, then, 
was the situation in 1779. Four states were claimants 
of the same territory. Vermont, troubled within and 
without, but determined to maintain her integrity, was 
pleading for admission to the Union, while on all sides 
her neighbors were making the situation worse, and 
Congress was doing nothing to make it better. 

The claim of New Hampshire stimulated New York 
to stir up further dissension in Vermont and advise her 
partisans to resist the authority of the state. They 
accordingly refused to recognize Vermont's authority to 
draft troops or raise taxes, held a convention at Brattle- 
boro, and formed a military association in Cumberland 
County. Congress, meantime, only tried to pacify the 
three litigious members of her own body, without paying 
much attention to the needs of Vermont. 

Such proceedings taught the people that they must' 
work out their own salvation if they were going to 
be saved. They accordingly stood ready to seize any 
opportunity to strengthen their position. A chance 
soon came. The New Hampshire towns which had 
once been represented in the Assembly of Vermont 
again desired to renew that relation. A convention of 



AN INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC 



129 



thirty-five towns which was held at Charlestown, New 
Hampshire, in 1781, revealed that a majority of them 
were in favor of a union with Vermont. 

About the same time a similar application came from a 
smaller number of towns across the New York border in 




Vermont Coat of Arms 



the eastern part of that state. Here was an opportunity 
for Vermont to increase her strength and resources 
in two directions. Both applications were favorably 
considered, and Vermont assumed jurisdictional rights 



130 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

over the petitioning towns. Their representatives were 
admitted to seats in her Assembly, and the annexa- 
tions became known as the East and West unions. 
This step was bold and unequivocal, but Vermont had 
become accustomed to burning her bridges behind her. 
The measure doubled the extent of her jurisdiction, 
added to her numbers and resources, quieted disaffection 
at home, and invited further immigration from abroad. 

The next step was to secure herself from the dangers 
of British invasion ; for the war was not over, and another 
British campaign was contemplated in the Champlain 
Valley. The British came up the lake, and Vermont 
was defenseless. Congress was devoting its attention 
and all the supplies it could get out of an unwilling con- 
stituency to campaigns in other parts of the country. 
But the British were still possessed of the notion that 
had once deceived Burgoyne, — that the people of this 
state would turn to the crown. In consequence of 
this they were misled by their hopes in a manner that 
proved as effective a defense for Vermont as a military 
equipment would have been. 

The peculiar situation of Vermont gave the British 
some grounds for supposing that her allegiance might 
be transferred to them. They were famihar with the 
rebuffs which the state had met in trying to associate 
herself with the other states, and they conjectured that 
they might turn her failure to their advantage. The 
first intimation that came of this desire was in the 
summer of 1780, when a stranger, apparently a Ver- 
mont farmer, met Ethan Allen in the streets of Arling- 
ton and handed him a letter. The stranger was not a 



AN INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC 131 

Vermont farmer but a British soldier, and the letter 
was from an officer of the British army in Canada. 

The letter invited Allen to give information about 
the sentiments of the people on the subject of forming 
a British alliance. Allen took the letter to Governor 
Chittenden and it was discussed among a few confiden- 
tial friends. No answer was returned to the British 
officer, and he, thinking that his first letter might have 
miscarried, sent another of similar purport in the follow- 
ing February. To this also Allen made no reply, but 
he sent both letters to Congress, with a characteristic 
one of his own. He wrote : 

I am fully grounded in opinion that Vermont has an indubita- 
ble right to agree on Terms of Cessation of Hostilities with Great 
Britain, providing the United States persist in rejecting her Appli- 
cation for a Union with them : for Vermont, of all people, would 
be the most miserable, were she obliged to defend the Independ- 
ence of the United claiming States, and they at the same time at 
full liberty to overturn and ruin the Independence of Vermont. I 
am persuaded when Congress considers the circumstances of this 
State, they will be more surprised that I have transmitted them the 
enclosed letters than that I have kept them in custody so long, for I 
am as resolutely determined to defend the Independence of Vermont 
as Congress are that of the United States, and rather than fail will 
retire with the hardy Green Mountain Boys into the desolate Cav- 
erns of the Mountains and wage war with Human nature at large. 

Congress remained inactive. 

When the British came up the lake in the fall of 
1780 Governor Chittenden opened communications with 
them, and with the help of the Aliens and a few others, 
without committing the state to any pledges, so kept 
the British fed with hopes of an alliance that they 



132 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

refrained from beginning hostilities. Presently news came 
of the surrender of Cornwallis. It was then too late to 
fight. The British embarked, returned to Canada, and 
the border was again free from the dangers of invasion. 

Thus far Congress had manifested little inclination to 
consider the case of Vermont at all ; but presently, in 
addition to the letters which Ethan Allen had trans- 
mitted, came the following one, sent by Franklin across 
the water. 

Whitehall (London) Feb. 7, 1781. 

The return of the people of Vermont to their allegiance is an 
event of the utmost importance to the king's affairs ; and at this 
time if the French and Washington really meditate an irruption 
into Canada, may be considered as opposing an insurmountable 
bar to the attempt. General Haldimand who has the same instruc- 
tions with you to draw over these people and give them support, 
will, I doubt not, push up a body of troops, to act in conjunction 
with them, to secure all the avenues through their country into 
Canada : and when the season admits take possession of the upper 
parts of the Hudson and Connecticut rivers, and cut off communi- 
cation between Albany and the Mohawk country. 

The letter, it seems, was written by Lord George 
Germaine to Sir Henry Clinton, but had been inter- 
cepted by the French and taken to Paris. There Ben- 
jamin Franklin was informed of it, secured it, and sent 
it to Congress. The evidence of this letter unmistak- 
ably corroborated the two which Allen had sent to 
Congress. They showed how important a place Ver- 
mont occupied in the British mind, and they elevated 
the state rather suddenly to a place of corresponding 
importance in the considerations of Congress. Ira 
Allen, who gives the fullest account of these Haldimand 



AN INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC 133 

negotiations of any one who was in the secret, says 
that this Germaine letter " had greater influence on 
the wisdom and virtue of Congress than all the exer- 
tions of Vermont in taking Ticonderoga, Crown Point, 
and the two divisions from General Burgoyne's army, 
or their petition to be admitted as a state in the general 
confederation, and offers to pay their proportion of the 
expenses of the war." 

Certain it is that the tone of Congress changed after 
the receipt of the Germaine letter. The problem of 
what could be done in case Vermont responded favor- 
ably to the offers of the British began to be seriously 
considered. Washington wrote from Newburg Feb. 11, 
1783, as follows :■ 

It is not a trifling force that will subdue them, even supposing 
they derived no aid from the enemy in Canada. . . . The country 
is very mountainous, full of defiles and exceedingly strong. The 
inhabitants for the most part are a hardy race, composed of that 
kind of people who are best calculated for soldiers ; in truth who 
are soldiers, for many, many hundreds of them are deserters from 
this army ; who having acquired property there would be desperate 
in defense of it, well knowing that they were fighting with halters 
about their necks. ^ 

Congress at length conceded for the first time the 
possibility of admitting Vermont, although it did so 
indirectly by stating that if such a step were taken it 
would be necessary for the state to relinquish the East 
and West unions. General Washington sent a verbal 
message to Governor Chittenden asking what the real 

1 It should be noted in passing that although Vermont was a very 
desirable refuge for deserters who did not wish to go to Canada, Ver- 
mont authorities assisted in making arrests when their aid was invoked. 



134 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



Con|^fs of the United States-.- 



. T 1 Hf THI Rn. ; 



IkgUH and hdd .it rlic City of Phikdclphia, on 
^foTicfa;, The h\th of 'Di-cemhe/, one tHou- 

fand fcven hiindjcd ami^ninety. ' . '* ■'*J' 



/in ACT/.r /'.f An'. 



■ /Af 'Stats. ^ VermSnt inio 



feeling of the people was, and later advised the gover- 
nor that the state would better be reduced to its former 

limits for the sake 
of ending the 
trouble. Encour- 
aged to think that 
if this were done 
Vermont would 
be promptly 
admitted, the 
Assembly com- 
plied with the 
suggestion ; on 
Feb. 2 2, 1782, 
Vermont was for 
the last time 
reduced to its 
present territorial 
form. 

The action of 
Vermont was not 
followed by the 
anticipated admis- 
sion to the Union. 
Matters still 
dragged on. The 
war ended, but 
the effects of the 
war began to appear. For Vermont the situation became 
less critical ; for the United States it did not. The condi- 
tion of Congress and the confederation was disreputable. 



jm H E Statj.'O? Vdowpf havJSf petuioAed the Congrefe to be 'ad- 
mMttl s member of the United Stales, Be H enabled by the Senate 
esJ'UcAist cf REPiUisgNYATiVEs iflbe United Stat/s sf America in 
Qcngrtfi aghihieJ, ai(d it u hereby tnoHed and deckrtd. That on the 
foank<ia)r of Mjrch, *ne Qioofand feyen Bundred and ninety-one, 
»7ttraia'5uK,-t)f nid^ijarie Wftlle of " «e^cJte of VenifO|»," 
fiuU be recdv<yi and admitted into. this Union, as a new and entire 
xaember of the Umted States of America. ^ " • . . 

■FReJpERICK AUGUSTUS MUHLENBERG, 

Sj'.'aier effh-Usi^e of Riprefenieiiivcs. 

JOHN AD;\1VIS, Vice.Prefidfnt of the United Sta/et, 
and Frejidetit ff i/m Senate. _ 

Approvbd, Februaiy thetighttfcnth, 1791. • 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, PreJtJenl nftbt United States. 




Facsimile of Act of Admission 



AN INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC 135 

The United States had no money, no revenue, no credit. 
The armies were unpaid, and the government was 
sinking into disgrace. Vermont grew less anxious for 
admission. Then came that wonderful reorganization 
and recovery under the constitution of 1789, with the 
splendid work of Hamilton and the administrations of 
Washington. Within two years of its reincarnation 
Congress unanimously voted that on the fourth day of 
the following March '' the said State, by the name and 
style of the State of Vermont, shall be received into this 
Union as a new and entire member of the United States." 

Conflicting interests were settled with comparative 
ease. This state paid to New York thirty thousand dol- 
lars in full settlement of all claims, and the money was 
used to reimburse those persons who had been dispos- 
sessed of lands held under New York grants.^ Many of 
the prominent men of the earlier struggle had died, and 
the new generation felt less bitterness over the ancient 
quarrel. Many of the Bennington disputants had also 
passed away. Three of the Allen family were dead, 
Ethan among the number, he having died at Burlington 
in 1789, of apoplexy. 

The best men in New York were also becoming con- 
vinced that nothing was to be gained by prolonging the 
struggle. In fact the contest was hindering the wel- 
fare of the state. Alexander Hamilton urged the settle- 
ment of it, and showed that New York with its burden 
of Revolutionary debt could not afford to carry on an 

1 The division of this money by New York among the claimants 
may be found in B. H. Hall's History of Eastern Vermont, Appendix L; 
also in Documentary History of Nezu York, IV, 1024. The amounts 
range from ^5.49 to ^7218.94. 



136 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

offensive war with Vermont ; a war would require an 
army and a treasury. This was the alternative : to settle 
or to fight. Vermont showed her appreciation of an 
amicable settlement by making grants of land to some 
of the prominent men of the sister state, John Jay was 
endowed with land in the town which still bears his 
name. With the admission of the state all the animosity 
of years was laid aside, and the neighboring common- 
wealths assumed their new relations with harmony and 
good will. 

The Ruling Motive 

It requires a somewhat broader view than that given in 
the history of this contest as it has been outlined above 
really to explain the attitudes which the various parties 
to the controversy took at different times. It will be 
worth while to get this broader view, because it is what 
makes events comprehensible. Frequently movements 
in history — political movements, for example — require 
an explanation which does not appear on the surface or 
in the mere narration of facts. 

If we look into the events of the Revolution during 
these years, we shall see that the Continental Congress 
had more trouble of its own than it knew what to do 
with, without taking up the battle for Vermont. With- 
out going into these events we can readily see that Con- 
gress could not afford to risk a quarrel between three of 
her important states, and perhaps others, for the mere 
sake of preserving the integrity of an outsider. The 
integrity of the outsider was not absolutely essential to 
the success of the American cause, but the integrity of 



AN INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC 137 

the Union was. The successful culmination of the war 
was far more important to Congress than the acquisition 
of another member to a body of wrangling states. This 
interprets the dilatory and vacillating course of Congress 
on the question of admitting Vermont to the Union. 

Upon Vermont, therefore, was thrown the necessity of 
maintaining her own independence against a manifest 
disposition of Congress to sacrifice her, as well as against 
the more aggressive acts of her immediate neighbors. 
This explains her granting of lands, her annexations of 
the East and West unions, and the somewhat shady 
diplomacy of the Haldimand negotiations. Vermont 
could not fail to see that, after all her efforts to aid the 
common cause, she was likely to get less from its success 
than she would from its failure; for Great Britain, the 
very power she was helping to fight, offered her what 
Congress did not. At any rate, appearances indicated 
that she would be forbidden as a state to participate in 
the results of that freedom which she was helping the 
others to secure. If such was the case, then every 
further step taken in support of the Revolution was 
suicidal for her. Could it be expected that Vermont 
would aid in defeating a foreign foe if by so doing she 
would put her neck under the yoke of a more hateful 
tyranny at home ? As a matter of policy, dictated by 
the instincts of self-preservation, the state could lend a 
listening ear to the proposals of British agents to detach 
Vermont from the American cause and make her a free 
British province. 

The disclosure of the British design, especially the 
Germaine letter, opened the mind of Congress to the 



138 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

possible magnitude and significance of Vermont's foreign 
relations, and brought once more into the sphere of 
national politics the question of admitting her to the 
Union. Congress was at length ready to admit that Ver- 
mont had gained a place of sufficient importance as a 
political entity to give her in all justice the right to be 
recognized. At the same time circumstances already 
noted made it impossible for Congress to grant imme- 
diate admission. This explains the attitude of Congress 
after 1781, — why she was ready to concede Vermont's 
independent statehood but did not admit her for ten 
years more. 

While the close of the war and the removal of British 
troops ended alike the danger of invasion and the nego- 
tiations with the British, these events did not leave the 
United States in a condition which rendered admission 
altogether desirable for the state. Vermont had then 
secured freedom from invasion, protection of life and 
property, the establishment of order, financial integrity, 
a vigorous and economical administration, an increasing 
population. Under the circumstances it was no gain to 
be admitted to membership in a government whose 
burdens were greater and whose guaranties of such 
essential advantages were less than her own. This 
explains why Vermont became less anxious to push 
her claims for admission. 

When, however, the federal situation reached a pitch 
of disintegration which necessitated reorganization, and 
the constitution of 1789 was "crammed down the gullet 
of America," or, in the more refined language of John 
Quincy Adams, '' extorted from the grinding necessity of 



AN INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC 139 

a reluctant nation," the general situation began straight- 
way to improve. The financial integrity of the United 
States was no longer a matter for speculation. National 
politics now began to turn on internal interests instead 
of foreign domination, and it became evident that in the 
new national politics the interests of Vermont were iden- 
tical with those of New England and the northern states. 
New York included. These common interests would 
be strengthened by the admission of the state. This 
explains why the motives for admission grew stronger 
while the obstacles grew less. 

So we find in this period of her independent statehood 
a curious and entertaining interplay of local and federal 
politics, which on the whole was not detrimental to 
Vermont's interests, and which also reveals the relation 
between separate states and the central government in 
what is essentially its true and permanent form. 

One cannot close the study of this period of Ver- 
mont's history without an increased admiration of the 
remarkable powers of her first governor. One of our 
historians, himself a governor, has not overstated his 
capacity in the following estimate: *'The formation of 
the territory of Vermont into a separate state, the suc- 
cessful progress of its government, and its final estab- 
lishment against the powerful opposition of other gov- 
ernments were owing in a great degree to the almost 
unerring foresight, unhesitating firmness and sound 
judgment of Thomas Chittenden." 



CHAPTER VIII 

FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812 

Development of the Settled Portions of 
THE State 

A. Industrial Conditions 

We must take a glance at the life of the people 
between the close of the Revolution and the War of 
1812, so as to fix in our minds some of the ways in 
which that life differed from our own. While in a sense 
it may be true that Vermont remained industrially in 
about the same condition as during the war down to 
the poUtical disturbances which heralded the next war, 
such a statement contains only half the truth. There 
was no wide change in the forms of industry, but there 
were a few changes of exceedingly great importance, and 
furthermore there was a great industrial development. 
Different kinds of business did not arise so rapidly 
then as now, but the few kinds which were carried on 
multipHed in different parts of the state. 

The lack of good means of transportation perpetuated 
colonial conditions to the period which we are now con- 
sidering. The growth of the transporting business is the 
key to the wonderful differences which we everywhere 
see between those days and our own. For example, we 
obtain supplies of grain, such as wheat and corn, and 

140 



REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812 141 

supplies of meat, such as beef and pork, in immense 
train loads daily coming from the West. Modern trans- 
portation has made this possible. In those earlier days 
it was more of a problem to get a cow from an interior 
Vermont town to Boston or New York or Montreal than 
it is to-day to get a carload of beef from the western 
prairie to Europe. Now every step in such a process 
is carefully provided for, and the business of providing 
for it has given rise to whole systems of great industries 
which influence the welfare of millions of people, provide 
millions of others with daily food, and enter the halls of 
our national government as questions of public policy. 

In colonial days these industries of transportation and 
the problems connected with them did not exist. That 
fact accounts for some of the most interesting phases of 
colonial life and work. Wheat and corn and potatoes 
could not be easily taken to market, but cattle could be 
driven, pork could be hauled on the sledges in winter, 
and potatoes could be turned into starch or whisky. 
Whisky was a very highly condensed form of grain, 
starch a condensed form of potato. You will find that 
the marketable products of the farms went into those 
forms of merchandise which combined the most value 
with the least bulk. There were one hundred and 
twenty-five distilleries in the state in 18 10, turning out 
one hundred and seventy-three thousand gallons of 
spirituous liquors. 

An agricultural community, even in its earliest days, 
needs certain artisans. It needs, for example, black- 
smiths, carpenters, masons, tailors, and shoemakers. 
Individual workmen were more necessary in these crafts 



142 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

then than they are to-day, because now great factories 
do the work, and in the factories each man does only a 
small part of the work which is done on the completed 
article. Then each workman mastered the entire trade 
and was a sort of factory in himself. 

The products of such labor were locally consumed. 
To-day they enter into trade and come even into the 
range of international commerce. The individual black- 
smith then made many tools ; the individual carpenter 
made many wares. Over one hundred and eighteen 
thousand dollars' worth of cabinet work was done in the 
state in 1810. Fulling mills dressed many yards of 
cloth. In the year above mentioned the amount was 
nearly a million yards ; one hundred and sixty-six mills 
were then operating. The local tannery tanned and 
dressed many skins. The itinerant cobbler worked no 
small part of these up into boots and shoes. Sixty- 
five thousand pairs of boots and more than twice that 
number of shoes were made in 18 10. 

Some of these trades necessitated others. The black- 
smith must have iron. There was plenty of it in the 
state, and so you will find that the production of iron 
was localized where ore and fuel were near together. 
Many little iron mines, foundries, and forges were scat- 
tered over the older-settled portions of Vermont. There 
came a time when coke instead of charcoal was used 
in the furnaces. That did away with the necessity of 
near-by forests for fuel. There came a time when new 
processes were invented for converting pig iron into bar 
in large quantities. That centralized the iron business 
in certain localities where the largest natural deposits of 



REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812 143 

ore were found. So the iron business dropped out of 
sight in Vermont after a time, except when unusual 
emergencies created a special demand. At Woodford 
there was a forge built for making anchors for the gun- 
boats which Jefferson's administration bequeathed the 
country. The War of 1812 also acted as a stimulus to 
Vermont's iron business, as we shall see later. 

A Vermont lawyer who was on Governor Chittenden's 
staff in 1 794, and was in the same year sent to England 
as a special agent for the Episcopal Church, wrote some 
letters describing the condition of things in Vermont 
as he knew them before he left the state. The letters 
were published in a little book in London, ^ and they 
make rather interesting reading now. Among other 
things this writer very frequently mentions the iron 
industries of different towns. 

We read in his book that Tinmouth then had foundries 
and a furnace at which all kinds of hollow ware were 
cast. At Skenesboro were Mr. Arwin's large forges 
and foundries. Mr. Burnham of Middletown also had 
large foundries and forges. At Fairhaven a furnace 
had been erected for casting all kinds of hollow iron- 
ware. At the same place were also two forges, and a 
slitting mill for making nail rods. Benson and Orwell, 
towns on Lake Champlain, abounded with ore and had a 
number of foundries and forges. At Brandon good bar 
iron was made. At Chittenden was a large furnace which 
yielded ^10,000 as the proceeds of its second blast in 
1795. Between Burlington and Colchester, on the great 
falls in the Onion River, were Ira Allen's works. At 

1 J. A. Graham, Descriptive Sketch of Vermont, London, 1797. . 



144 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



Vergennes were others. So the account runs on, show- 
ing us that the iron business was quite a factor in early 
industry in the state and that the works were scattered 
over the older western portions. The census of 1810 
showed that there were sixty-seven cut-nail factories and 
sixty-five trip hammers in operation. 

The letters also indicate a general thrift among the 
farming people. The inhabitants of Shaftsbury were 
said to be wealthy. They had especially favorable mar- 
kets at Troy and New City. They evidently possessed 
handsome houses, for it is especially mentioned that 
they used fine white marble for underpinnings and fire- 
places. It was also used for tombstones. The uplands 
of Sunderland produced large crops of hay, wheat, Indian 
corn, hemp, and flax. There were farmers in Claren- 
don who cut from two hundred to five hundred tons 
of hay in a season. They made butter and cheese 
in abundance, so of course must have had good herds 
of cattle. 

Farmers of the mountain towns, like Readsboro, 
Stamford, Glastonbury, and Somerset, raised cattle for 
the markets. In such regions, well up among the hills, 
game was still abundant. The moose had gone north, 
and beaver, too, had left the more thickly settled southern 
portions of the state ; but foxes, wolves, deer, bears, and 
rabbits still remained. The town of Dorset was so 
infested with wolves that sheep raising was hazardous 
business. 

We hear of the farmers of Cavendish getting lime to 
use as fertilizer at the kilns of Saltash, now Plymouth. 
The towns of Ludlow and Reading were also supplied 



REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812 145 

from the same source. The soil about Bennington was 
especially good, and vast quantities of wheat and Indian 
corn were raised, besides great crops of hay of red and 
white clover and herd's grass. Winter wheat was then 
a sure crop in Vermont. Wheat was raised for the New 
York markets, in fact, until about 1825, in the south- 
western part of the state. 

This part of the state had the advantage of being 
near water communication to Troy. The markets on the 
Hudson were always good, and roads were excellent for 
the times. In winter, especially, when they were smooth 
with snow and the Hudson was bridged with ice, it was 
comparatively easy to market any kind of produce. Ox 
and horse teams, were kept busy going to Albany with 
loads of wheat, pork, beef, butter, cheese, and potash, 
and returning with store goods or a snug little sum of 
ready money for the thrifty owner. 

We begin to hear more about fruits and fruit raising. 
Bennington boasted of apples, peaches, pears, red and 
white plums, grapes, currants, gooseberries, etc. It is 
said that wax grafting was invented by one of the 
inhabitants of Shaftsbury, although this was at a later 
date, and that having perfected the system he taught 
it to others. So proficient did his disciples in the art 
become that in the months of April and May the exodus 
of grafters almost depopulated the town of the male por- 
tion of its inhabitants. 

More evidences of thrift appear in the descriptions 
of houses of the time. Those at Bennington are said 
to be positively ''elegant." They were made of wooden 
frames and filled in with brick and mortar. Some were 



146 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

even made entirely of brick. The house of a certain 
Mr. Tichenor, so the writer of those letters said, had 
''chimney pieces and hearths of beautiful clouded marble 
as highly polished as any I have seen in London." If 
the writer were alive to-day he would be pleased to learn 
that Vermont marble has not lost any of the reputation 
which he was one of the first to make known to the Old 
World. 

If one wishes to learn about the life of the people 
and get a bird's-eye view of what was going on over 
the state, this eighteenth-century gossip is of no small 
interest. We learn that the schools of Manchester 
were especially good; that the town of Newbury was 
supplied with water by an aqueduct ; that the same town 
had the " most elegant church in the state " and the only 
bell ; that at Bellows Falls Colonel Hale had built a toll- 
gate across the Connecticut River; that rights of lock 
navigation had been secured over the falls, so that the 
settlements above could enjoy the blessings of river 
transportation; that Windsor had one of the best corn 
mills in New England; that at Rutland there were an 
oil mill, a brewery, and a hat factory; that Fairhaven 
possessed a paper mill, and a printing press which used 
paper made at the mill from the bark of basswood trees ; 
that ore from a certain lead mine had been taken to 
London for Dr. Johnson to analyze; that Mr. Clark of 
Orwell could make Epsom salts from his salt spring 
by boiling down the water. 

The author also makes mention of the great pines in 
the state, some of them being six feet through at the 
base. Other fine timber abounded in his day. He 



REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812 147 

speaks of the winter travel to Canada by sledges. In 
various towns schools are mentioned, both day schools 
and academies. There were seven academies and gram- 
mar schools incorporated before 1800, and fifteen more 
before the war. Churches, oftentimes several denomi- 
nations, existed in almost every town. He says the 
religion at one place was a ''medley of almost every 
denomination under heaven," — a condition which would 
no longer be regarded as peculiar. 

Conditions which awaited new settlers seem to have 
been more favorable than in earlier days. These letters 
describe settlers as coming from Connecticut to Sand- 
gate, cutting the timber, chopping it into lengths, piling 
these in heaps, burning them, collecting the ashes, boil- 
ing them down into salts, harrowing over the land, and 
sowing it to wheat or planting Indian corn, without any 
further cultivation. Wheat was said to yield from thirty 
to forty bushels per acre. The writer remarked : " Thus 
the labourer gets his grounds cleared without any expense 
and with little trouble, and his first harvest seldom fails 
of yielding him double the original cost of the whole 
land so cultivated." By saying that the farmer got 
his ground cleared without expense the writer probably 
meant that the product of the ashes would sell for 
enough to repay the labor of clearing. 

B. Industrial Transition 

New enterprises were being started. In 1 8 1 1 the 
legislature granted a charter authorizing the manufac- 
ture of glass. A factory was built on the western shore 
of Lake Dunmore, and ran for many years, employing 



148 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

about forty people. At Middlebury, a little before the 
War of 1812, a stone cotton-factory was built which 
made cotton cloth that sold for fifty cents a yard. At 
the same place, a little earlier than this, marble had 
been found, and a factory was built. It was the first 
extensive one in the state for working marble. Quar- 
ries had been opened, however, a good deal earlier. In 
Dorset, in 1785, Isaac Underbill was making fire jambs, 
chimney backs, hearths, and lintels for the capacious 
fireplaces of that day. Limestone or slate had been 
used previously, but the new fashion of using marble 
once begun, people came from distances of fifty or a 
hundred miles to get these beautiful fireplace stones. 

This was years before marble was sawn, so the sheets 
had to be riven off where Nature had formed strata 
from four to eight inches thick and then hewn into 
the desired shape and dimensions with mallet and chisel. 
When one layer ran out, there was nothing to do but 
find another which had already yielded sufficiently to 
atmospheric forces to allow the hand of man to com- 
plete the work. 

Railroads had not as yet pierced the state. Steam 
navigation did not begin until 1808. Over in the eastern 
part of the state Captain Samuel Morey of Fairlee was 
years before that working on his model of a steamer, 
and as early as 1791 constructed a steamer and exhib- 
ited it on the Connecticut River. He afterward trans- 
ferred it to Morey Lake, and in 1795 secured a patent. 
He also showed his invention to friends of Fulton, and 
tradition says that when a few years later the latter 
produced his triumphant work the disgusted captain 



REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812 149 

sank his own apparatus to the bottom of the lake. It 
has been searched for, but Hke Captain Kidd's treasure, 
non constat. Lake Champlain is not far from the Hud- 
son River, and it was not long after the Clermont had 
puffed its victorious way from New York to Albany 
before one of the finest steamers in the world could be 
seen tearing about the lake at the terrific speed of five 
miles an hour. Steam navigation had come to stay. 

Of course sailing vessels had traversed the lake for 
years. In 1749 the Swedish naturalist, Kalm, visited 
Fort Frederick and found there a sailing vessel plying 
regularly between that point and St. John's in Canada. 
That was probably the first such vessel built on the 
lake ; but between the French and the English the 
practice did not cease, and after the wars were over 
the lake became a highway of commerce. 

One of the few products of the Vermont forest for 
which there was then a demand was ship timber. This 
could be marketed only when there was water near to 
float it to the ports. In Vermont that confined the 
early lumber business to the vicinity of the Connecti- 
cut River or Lake Champlain. Since none of the ship 
timber in western Vermont was on a water route to the 
New England ports, it was taken to Europe instead. 
The well-timbered sections of white and Norway pine 
bordering the lake had through that body and its outlet 
water communication to Quebec and thence to Europe. 
In 1 786 Ira Allen built at Winooski Falls the first saw- 
mills in this section and sent the lumber to Quebec. 
The demand was for oak for ship timber, and white and 
Norway pine for masts and spars. A good trade grew 



I50 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

up. The Quebec outlet for Vermont timber lasted a 
third of a century, and then the trade turned and began 
to come the other way. 

It must have been quite an undertaking to get a raft 
together and take it through to Quebec as they used to 
do. The men lived on the raft, equipped with tents, pro- 
visions, and cooking utensils. On this crude eighteenth- 




Hatchels and Wool Card 

century house boat they made their way leisurely down 
to the outlet of the lake, blown by the favoring winds. 
We can imagine a little excitement now and then at the 
falls as the huge, unwieldy craft went blundering along. 
Lumber trade was not the only trade with Canada, 
and Quebec was not the only mart. The settlers found 
in Montreal a nearer market, and sailing craft of all 
kinds plied the lake picking up cargoes of wheat and 



REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812 



51 



potash, products of the Champlain Valley, and bringing 
in return merchandise that had come from over the seas. 
In the winter long trains of sledges made their annual 
trips to Montreal, just as from the other parts of the state 
they went to Boston or Portland, taking their loads of beef, 
pork, and other produce to exchange for goods and cash. 
Before the War of 18 12 some important changes had 
begun in the older portions of the state in the manner 
of cloth making. Before 1800 no very successful experi- 
ments had been 
made in making 
cotton or woolen 
in large quantities 
by machinery. So 
far as this state 
was concerned 
cotton was hardly 
an article of com- 
merce at all. It 
was rarely used 
for domestic pur- 
poses, nearly all 

the cloth being linen or woolen made by hand from 
flax and wool raised on the farm. The flax was rotted 
in the field and then made ready for further use by the 
hand brake and swingling knife. The tow was then 
separated from the finer flax by hatchels. The flax was 
then wound upon the distaff and spun on the little 
wheel turned by a footboard, and thus made into linen 
yarn. This yarn was then woven into cloth for sheets, 
pillowcases, towels, tablecloths, and undergarments. 




Flax or Wool Reels 



152 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 




Spinning Wheel 



In 1810 there were nearly two million yards of it thus 
made. The tow was spun on a large wheel, like wool, 

and made into filling for 
linen warp or a coarse 
cloth for common uses. 

Wool was carded by 
hand by the farmers' 
wives and daughters, and 
then was spun into yarn 
on the great wheel. Then 
it could be woven into 
flannel cloth. Such 
flannel as was not wanted for beds and undergarments 
was sent to the fulling mill to be prepared for outside 
clothing. That which was designed for men's wear was 
fulled, colored, and sheared by hand. Shearing was the 
shortening of the nap on the 
cloth. That designed for wo- 
men's wear was dyed and made 
glossy by pressing. It was 
then ready for winter dresses. 
The improvements which 
were spoken of were, first, the 
introduction of the carding: 
machine, which lessened the 
labor of preparing the wool for 
spinning. Carding mills were 
built, and then the wool could 
be taken to them to be carded 
instead of being carded by hand at home. In 1801 such 
a mill was set up at New Ipswich, New Hampshire. 




Flax Wheel 



REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1S12 153 

Within nine years there were 1 39 carding machines run- 
ning in this state, whose capacity was 798,500 pounds 
of wool. Imagine the rehef which the hand carders 
felt! Fulling mills had already been in operation for 
a long time. 

In 1793 Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, a device 
for removing the seeds from cotton. Cotton wool then 




S W I MS 

came into more common use. It was made into cloth 
in the farmers' homes, at first, until machines were 
invented for making it into yarn in factories. The 
yarn was then put out to be woven on the common 
loom. In 1 810 there were over 130,000 yards of cot- 
ton used in the state, but this was a very small amount 
compared with the 1,200,000 yards of woolen and 



154 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

nearly 2,000,000 yards of linen. In that year there were 
in Vermont 23 spinning jennies, equal to about 800 spin- 
dles ; but there were nearly 68,000 spinning wheels and 
1 500 looms. However, the change had begun and it was 
not long before the spinning machine and power loom 
revolutionized processes completely in both cotton and 
woolen manufacturing. 

We see, therefore, that before the War of 1 8 1 2 a few 
very important changes had begun which were to have 
far-reaching effects on the cloth-making business of this 
country. Some of these changes were to fix the indus- 
tries of the South and make slavery a harder thing than 
ever to uproot ; but so far as they concerned Vermont 
these changes were but slightly felt before the War of 
18 12, and only in the older portions of the state. Long 
after the war, as we shall see, these hand processes, which 
have now long been abandoned and have left us only 
picturesque relics of spinning wheels as their legacy, 
continued to prevail throughout the greater portion of 
the state. 

C. Educational Conditions 

In framing the constitution of the state the fathers 
made provision for the education of the children, and 
really laid the basis of the common-school system. 
They provided for different classes of schools, foresee- 
ing well the need of higher education as well as that 
given by the common schools. " One grammar school 
in each county and one university in the state ought 
to be established by the direction of the General 
Assembly." Thus did the men whose own training 



REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812 155 

had been in the hard school of adversity provide a way 
for their children to reap advantages which they had 
never known and never could know. 

In 1 79 1 the University of Vermont was incorporated 
and located at Burlington. In 1800 Middlebury Col- 
lege was incorporated. Before the War of 18 12 the 
two institutions had graduated one hundred and sixty- 
six students. The operations of that war somewhat 
embarrassed the pursuit of education at the former 
college. In the summer of 181 3 large quantities of 
United States arms were deposited in the university 
building and a guard of soldiers stationed there, which 
"very much interrupted the collegiate exercises," it 
is said. The next year collegiate exercises were en- 
tirely suspended and the building was rented to the 
government. 

Grammar schools and academies increased in number, 
medical societies were formed, newspapers had begun 
to flourish, all before the War of 18 12. Town libraries 
were not unknown, and the work of training teachers 
had begun. As early as 1785, J. Eddy, the Quaker 
town clerk of Danby, opened a select school expressly 
to train young men to teach. At Pawlet, in 1804, was 
organized one of the first educational societies in the 
United States. 

It would be a mistake to suppose that the average 
of intelligence was low in the state. It was not. The 
facts just cited would be sufficient to indicate an excep- 
tionally keen interest in educational matters. The min- 
isters of the early churches were often men of keen 
minds and clear thought, as well as possessors of vivid 



156 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



imaginations. Dr. Williams of Rutland was a Doctor 
of Laws, a member of the Meteorological Society of 
Germany, of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, 
and of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Massa- 
chusetts. His reputation, at least, was international. 
Such men of course were an exception, but general 
intelligence was the rule. 

At Westminster, in 1778, was 
estabhshed the first printing 
office in the 
state. At the 
session of the 
legislature fol- 
lowing this, state 
printers were 
appointed. The 
two preceding 
sessions had pro- 
mulgated their 
laws in manu- 
script. In Feb- 
ruary, 1 78 1, the 
first newspaper 
printed in the 
state was started 
at Westminster by the proprietors of the printing office 
mentioned above. It was called TJic VeJinont Gazette, 
or Green Mountain Post Boy. It had an interesting 
couplet as its motto : 

Pliant as reeds where streams of freedom glide, 
Firm as the hills to stem oppression's tide. 




The First Printing Press in America 

On this press the first newspaper in Vermont was printed in 
1781, in the Westminster Courthouse 



REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812 157 

It was not destined to be as enduring as the hills, for 
in about two years it was discontinued. Other papers 
were started, however, and before the year 1800 the 
state was the possessor of three enterprising journals, 
one at Bennington, one at Windsor, and one at Rutland. 

D. Financial and Economic Legislation 

In the period which we are now studying, Vermont 
issued paper money and established coinage. Before 
and during the Revolution the monetary conditions of 
the American colonies were in a fearful and wonder- 
ful state. The issues of paper money by the separate 
colonies and of Continental currency by the combined 
colonies went the way of all fictitious values. Depre- 
ciation went on until to say that a thing was not worth 
a Continental indicated a very low estimate of its worth. 

To add to the disturbances caused by its own falling 
value, the colonial issues which were legally made had 
to cope with a tremendous output of counterfeit bills. 
Our present manufacture of paper money is so safe- 
guarded that it is a very difficult thing to counterfeit 
it successfully, and a comparatively easy thing to detect 
the fraud. But the situation was very different then. 

The people of this state suffered so much from 
counterfeit money and the failure of banks that agita- 
tion began for the issue of currency by the state.^ So, 

1 The returns from six counties in 1808 show sixty-one indictments for 
counterfeiting or passing counterfeit money. In November of that year 
the General Assembly requested the governor to secure the aid of the 
Canadian authorities to disperse the counterfeiters who infested the 
southern borders of Canada " preying upon the property of the good 
citizens of this and the United States." — Governor and Council, V, 302. 



158 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



in 1 78 1, Vermont determined to follow at a safe dis- 
tance the example of Congress and the neighboring 
states. An issue of ^25, 1 5 5 in paper money was author- 
ized. The bills were to be in denominations running 
from one shilling to ^^3. Notice that this was before 
the adoption of dollars and cents, or as it is commonly 
called, the decimal system of currency. 

In order to make this 

money worth what it 
claimed to be on its face, 
provision was made to 
lay taxes to redeem it. 
It was to be redeemed 
by the treasurer of the 
state by June i, 1782, 
with specie at the rate 
of six shillings to the 
Spanish milled dollar. 
It is to the credit of the 
state that it was re- 
deemed and for that 
reason its value was 
maintained. Notice 
that Spanish money was 
the prevailing coin current at that time. It came to the 
colonies by way of the West India trade. 

Not content with this experiment, some of the people 
began agitation for the establishment of banks a few 
years later. The bank measure was voted down in 
1787, but came up again in 1803, when application 
was made for the establishment of banks at Windsor 




Facsimile of Vermont Bill of 
Credit 



REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812 159 

and Burlington. Again the proposition was turned 
aside, thanks to the governor and council. Since the 
bill had passed the house, the governor and council 
deemed it expedient to give their reasons for vetoing it. 
These reasons stand to-day as a witness of the sound 
common sense of these men. The first one really cov- 
ered the case and is as follows : 

Because bank bills being regarded as money, and money like 
water always seeking its level, the bills put into circulation in this 
state must displace nearly the same sum of money now in circula- 
tion among us, and by driving it into the seaports, facilitate its 
exportation to foreign countries ; which, as bank bills cannot be 
made a legal tender, must prove a calamity to the citizens generally, 
and especially to those who dwell at a distance from the proposed 
bank. 

However, the subject was revived again, and in 1806 
a state bank was chartered. It became insolvent like 
all the rest, and was within a few years wound up and 
its bills burned as fast as they were received for taxes. 

You may have heard of that experiment in coining 
money in Massachusetts which gave rise to the " pine- 
tree shilling." About a century later than that Ver- 
mont undertook to supply her needs for a current coin 
in something the same fashion. It was in 1785 that 
the Vermont legislature granted to Reuben Harmon of 
Rupert the right of coining copper money for two years. 
The same privilege was then extended for eight years. 
Harmon gave bonds of ;£5000 that he would do the 
work faithfully. No coin was to be made of less than 
one third of an ounce Troy weight. 

Harmon had to build a place to conduct the business 
in, make a furnace for smelting, and get machinery for 



i6o 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



rolling the bars and cutting and stamping the coins. 
The latter process was done by hand with a powerful 
iron screw attached to a heavy beam overhead. It was 
said that a speed of sixty coins a minute could be made 
with this contrivance, but in actual practice they never 

averaged over 
thirty. 

These first 
coins are de- 
s c r ibed as 
follows : Ob- 
verse, a sun 
rising from 
behind the 
hills and a 
plow in the 
foreground ; 
legend Ver- 
MONTis Res 

P U B L I C A 

1785.^ Reverse, a radiated eye, surrounded by thirteen 
stars; legend Quarta Decima Stella. ^ The prophecy 
came true. Another coin was made later, after Harmon's 
time had been extended. He apparently did not make any 
profit on his first venture, so applied for the extension, 
which was granted. The weight of the coin was also 
diminished from one third ounce Troy weight to '' pieces 
weighing not less than 4 pennyweights, 15 grains each." 
Harmon then secured partners from New York for the 




Early Vermont Coins 



1 " The Republic of Vermont." 

2 " The Fourteenth Star," i.e., the fourteenth state in the Union. 



REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812 i6l 

remainder of the term. They brought dies which made 
coins Hke the following : on one side a head with 
AucTORi Vermon.^ On the reverse was a figure of a 
woman, with the legend Inde et Lib, 1788.^ 

We do not know how long this firm continued to 
coin money or how much it coined in all. There is 
some reason to suppose that the mint ceased to operate 
in 1788. After three years the firm was to pay for 
its privilege by giving to the treasury of the state two 
and a half per cent of all the money coined. It is said 
that about the year 1800 considerable counterfeiting was 
done in this vicinity, and a little detective work by the 
people disclosed the fact that three brothers by the 
name of Crane were making counterfeit silver coins in 
the woods east of Rupert, in a secluded glen at the base 
of Mount Anthony. Upon discovery they fled to parts 
unknown, and their machinery was destroyed. 

There is one curious feature of colonial lawgiving 
which perhaps deserves a word here, since in this period 
we see its vanishing traces. That is the custom of 
granting lotteries for the aid of enterprises of various 
sorts both public and private. It seems to us an 
almost shocking ethical laxity in an age which we have 
become accustomed to regard as especially strict and puri- 
tanical. Perhaps if we were to look at the age a little 
more sharply we would modify our views of it some- 
what. This practice of granting lotteries, at any rate, 
was quite a universal custom throughout the colonies, 
and was employed to secure money to build a church or 

1 " By the Authority of Vermont." 

2 " Independence and Liberty." 



l62 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



help a college or do any similar work of religious and 
educational uplifting. 

In this state the object of the lotteries seems to have 
run more to internal improvements. Of the total num- 
ber of twenty-four lotteries granted between 1783 and 
1804, when the last grant was made, nine were either 
for repairing or building bridges, and five were for 
repairing or building roads. Two were made to help 
men erect breweries, and one to assist in building the 

courthouse at 
Rutland. Bridges 
were to be built 
over the White 
River, the Black 
River, the Otta 
Ouechee River, 
the Otter Creek, 
the Lamoille and 
the D eer fi eld 
rivers from the 
proceeds of such 
speculation. Oc- 
casionally a lottery was granted to help a man recover 
from losses sustained by fire. Fire-insurance compa- 
nies had not yet been established in the state, and 
the method of lottery was doubtless thought to be as 
equitable a way as any to distribute losses. 

Under the stimulus of lotteries turnpike companies 
were incorporated, and for some years following 1796 a 
turnpike craze swept the state. Fifty companies were 
incorporated within a few years. They were rarely 




The Governor Palmer House, Dan- 
ville, WHERE THE LEGISLATURE MET 
IN 1805 



REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OK 1812 



163 



a success, and as public highways muhiphed it became 
evident that the tollgate was doomed. Most of the 
companies surrendered their charters, and their roads 
became pubhc highways. 

One or two other matters deserve to be mentioned, 
although perhaps they do not, strictly speaking, come 
under the caption of financial or economic legislation. 




The Present State House at Montpelier 

The first of these is the permanent location of legisla- 
tive sessions and the erection of a state house. In 1805 
Montpelier was made the capital of the state. There can 
be no doubt that the dignity of the state was enhanced 
greatly by having a fixed capital instead of an itinerant 
legislature. The other thing to be noted is the rapid 
formation of counties. Seven were established before 
179 1, and four more in the following year. After this 



164 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

the work went on more slowly, the last county, Lamoille, 
not being formed until 1835. 

Life in the Newer Portions of the State 

After the close of the Revolution population rapidly 
increased, and a fair share of it sought the newer por- 
tions of northern Vermont and the " Y " of the Green 
Mountains. The Hazen road became famous as a means 
of transit for settlers across country into the new land. 
Peacham, which for a time had been the terminus of 
the road, had a period of prosperity, and was of some 
importance for a few years as a point of Indian trade. 
In 1805 the Passumpsic Turnpike Company was incor- 
porated and did something in road construction. 

The writer of the gossipy letters which we have 
quoted says that for six years previous to his account 
Caledonia County had a rapid growth. Orleans County 
remained an almost unbroken wilderness until after 
the Revolution, inhabited by Indians and visited by 
an occasional white hunter. After the Revolution the 
southwestern portion of this county was made accessible 
by the Hazen road. 

Returning for a little to the settlement of Caledonia 
County, we find there a new element among the incom- 
ing settlers. Hitherto we have noticed only settlers 
who had come from southern New England. Now 
we have immigrants from abroad. Certain companies 
formed in Scotland sent agents to America to find where 
good farming land lay and to make purchases of tracts 
in favorable sections. It happened that the president 



REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812 165 

of Princeton College, Rev. John Witherspoon, owned a 
large tract of land in Ryegate, and as the agent of one 
of these companies went to him for information, he sold 
to him the southern half of that town in 1773. 

This company was called the Scots American Com- 
pany, and was composed of about one hundred and forty 
farmers of Renfrewshire. So we have the nucleus of 
one Scotch settlement in the town of Ryegate. In 
the following year an agent of another company, the 
Farmers' Company of Perth and Stirlingshire, bought 
seven thousand acres in the southern part of Barnet. 
As the result of these two purchases, large and flourish- 
ing settlements of Scotch immigrants were formed, and 
in their honor .the county was given the old Roman 
name of Scotland, — Caledonia. These settlers were 
intelligent, industrious, patriotic, honest, and religious, 
and formed a valuable addition to the population of this 
part of the state. 

The northern part of this county remained for some 
years the habitat of moose and deer. The early settlers 
of Burke would go on snowshoes to the north of that 
town, where the animals yarded in winter, and bring 
back on their shoulders or on rudely made hand sleds — 
"moose sleds" they called them — the proceeds of the 
hunt, great packs of hides and meat. The skins were 
sometimes made to serve the purpose of beds in the 
earliest homes. 

Great quantities of '< salts " were made here and mar- 
keted at St. Johnsbury for three or four dollars a hundred 
pounds. At length an ashery was built in Burke, and 
the proprietor took his potash to Portland through the 



l66 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

Crawford Notch in the White Mountains. Mails came 
into the county through Danville from St. Albans. 
They were carried on horseback across the country, 
the carrier heralding his approach by means of a tin 
horn, and distributing the mail from his saddlebags as 
he went along. This peripatetic post office was a truly 
rural delivery. Our latest improvement in the mail 
service is not such a new thing after all. 

Of course the southern part of the state had estab- 
lished routes before this. The governor and council 
established a weekly post between Bennington and 
Albany, New York, as early as 1783, and the next year 
the legislature created five post offices, with mails going 
once a week each way between them. These were at 
Bennington, Rutland, Windsor, Brattleboro, and New- 
bury. The rates of postage were the same as those 
of the United States; they depended upon how far 
the letters were carried. They ran as high as twenty- 
five cents for letters that had been brought several 
hundred miles. Postage was paid by the one who 
received the letter, not by the sender. The post riders 
were allowed two pence or three pence a mile for travel, 
and had in addition the exclusive right to carry letters 
and packages on their routes. When Vermont became 
a state of course her mail service became a part of the 
government system. 

Settlers pushed up the Passumpsic Valley from Cale- 
donia County, without roads save those of their own 
making, following the trail which Rogers's party of 
rangers had taken nearly half a century before on 
their return from Canada. Here and there were found 



REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812 167 

marks on the trees, thought to have been made by the 
rangers ; at one place was found a coat of mail, and at 
another remnants of an old iron spider. By this old 
route settlers now came into the county of Orleans. 

Four or five settlers planted potatoes at Barton 
in 1793. They found them growing the next season 
and used them as food, with lunge from Crystal Lake. 
It had been but few years since the Indians had pitched 
their wigwams here on their favorite camping ground 
at the outlet of the lake. Early inhabitants saw their 
numerous half-decayed cabins. An old Indian, Foosah 
by name, told of killing twenty-seven moose and many 
beaver in this vicinity in the winter of 1783-1784. In 
1796 General Barton, for whom the town was named, 
built a sawmill at the foot of the meadows, but for 
gristmilling and for groceries the settlers had to go to 
Lyndon or St. Johnsbury. They had no road save the 
spotted trees to guide them, and no carriage but their 
own strong legs and sinewy arms and backs. In the 
spring of 1809 wolves became especially troublesome 
among the sheep. In one year four bears were killed 
in John May's cornfield and the woods near by. There 
were still moose in the woods eastward, a day's tramp 
toward the Connecticut River. 

From Barton settlers moved into Charleston in 1802. 
Having settled, they found that their best way of com- 
municating with the outside world lay through Burke, 
which they could reach by crossing the mountain and 
the ''ten-mile woods." It was fortunate that these 
settlers found the Clyde River stocked with trout, Echo 
Pond "our meat barrel," and partridges plenty in the 



l68 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

woods, else they might have fared worse than they did 
in the cold season of 1813. Wheat, rye, and barley 
all failed, and the people went to the woods for leeks 
and groundnuts as well as for game. 

By way of the Barton River early settlers in Cov- 
entry vended their salts, made by boiling down the lye 
of hard-wood ashes, to manufacturers of pearlash, and 
got in return salt, flour, and leather. In the year of the 
famine they had to live for days on suckers, the stream 
having been depleted of its trout. 

Parties from Danville and Peacham cut a road through 
Irasburg to Troy in the fall of 1807 and transported 
hundreds of tons of salts and pearlashes to Canada. In 
the days of the embargo much of this trade went to 
Montreal through the wilderness in winter. In the 
spring of 1808 a great deal of pearlash was still left 
in the country, and the Barton River was cleared out 
so that rafts and barges loaded with pearlash could be 
taken to Quebec. '* The Landing " became the name 
of the place where it was put on the boats. The 
channel of the river being thus cleared and intercourse 
once begun, it was easy to keep up trade relations 
after the war began, and we have in consequence the 
smuggling of the following years. 

Lake Memphremagog had been of old a famous fish- 
ing ground among the Indians, and they were loath to 
leave. In its waters they had taken salmon and mas- 
kinonge, and through the adjacent woods they had 
hunted moose, deer, bears, and smaller fur-bearers. It 
is not strange that in the fall and winter of 1799 Troy 
received a visitation from Indians. A party of men. 



REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812 169 

squaws, and papooses, under the chief Susap, came and 
built camps beside the river and wintered there near the 
settlers. The deer and moose were growing scarcer, 
and the company were half starved through the winter. 
They made baskets, cups, and pails of birch bark, and 
eked out a scanty living until spring ; then they left, 
never to return. 

One of their number, an old woman known as Molly, 
gained a great reputation as a doctress among the 
whites, who suffered that winter from an epidemic. 
This woman was familiar with the events of Lovewell's 
War, which occurred in 1725 and at which she said 
her husband was killed. Some years after her kindly 
services to the settlers at Troy she went to Guildhall. 
In 1 8 17 she was found dead on White Cap Mountain, 
in East Andover, Maine, where she had gone to gather 
blueberries. She had survived her husband nearly a 
century. 

At Richford we hear that Indians hunted along the 
Missisquoi River and in the mountains in winter, freez- 
ing the meat which they secured from their slaughtered 
game. In the spring when the ice broke up in the 
river and lake they took their meat by way of Cham- 
plain and the Sorel River to Caughnawaga to market. 
But the coming of the white settlers hastened the day 
when the Indian must depart. These occasional trips 
were but his last farewell to the land of his fathers 
and the places which soon would know him no more. 

Some Indian chiefs in Canada applied to the legisla- 
ture in 1798 for compensation for the lands which their 
tribes had owned in Vermont. The claim embraced 



I/O HISTORY OF VERMONT 

nearly the whole of the present counties of Addison, 
Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle. The legislature 
supported the agents of the Indians during their mis- 
sion, and sent them away with one hundred dollars 
as a friendship token, but did not solve the vexing 
problem of how to extinguish with equity the claims of 
the prior inhabitants to the lands of which they had 
been dispossessed. A later session decided that the 
Indian claims were extinguished, if they had ever 
existed, by the treaties between France and Great 
Britain in 1763 and England and the United States 
in 1783. A resolution to this effect was sent to the 
Indians, and although it would be interesting to know 
how they interpreted the logic of this decision, it 
appears to have stopped any further claims. 

One more incident will be enough to finish the pic- 
ture of life in these northern settlements between the 
Revolution and the War of 18 12. In the spring of 
1796 Ephraim Adams and three other young men from 
Ipswich, New Hampshire, purchased a thousand acres 
of land in Knight's Gore, now in the eastern part of 
Bakersfield. On this land they worked three summers, 
and in the winter went back to New Hampshire to 
teach school. Working in this way, in three seasons 
they cleared their land and made farms for themselves, 
having wheat to sell. We can guess that they never 
forgot the events of those three summers, when they 
slept under the bark of an elm for cover and cooked 
their food over an oven built of stones and plastered 
with mud. They finally bought a cow, and when their 
wheat ripened sufficiently to cut, they boiled it and 



REVOLUTION TO THE WAR OF 1812 171 

ate it with milk. They made a threshing floor out of 
basswood logs split in halves and laid flat side up, and 
improvised a fanning mill for winnowing their grain. 
People came from the lake to buy their wheat. From 
the ashes which he saved while clearing his land young 
Adams secured cash for the building materials of his 
first dwelling. 

From such instances we can see that the process of 
settlement was much the same as it had been two or 
three decades earlier in the older portions of the state. 
But if the process was no less hard at first a more 
rapid development appears. Neighbors were plentier, 
and the older towns served as markets for the newer. 
Then, too, for this northern part Montreal and Quebec 
furnished markets and a trade which led to interest- 
ing results when national policy once more became 
uppermost in Vermont history. But that brings us to 
the War of 18 12. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE WAR OF 1812 

Plattsburg Bay, Sept. ii, 1814. 
I could only look at the enemy's galleys going off in a shattered 
condition ; for there was not a mast in either squadron that could stand 
to make sail on, the lower rigging being nearly all shot away, hung down 
as though it had just been placed over the mast heads. The Saratoga 
had 55 round shot in her hull; the Confiance one hundred and five. 
The enemy's shot passed principally just over our heads, as there was 
not 20 whole hammocks in the nettings at the close of the action ; 
which lasted, without intermission, two hours and twenty minutes. — 
Extract from Macdonough's Report to the Secretary of the Navy. 

Military Events of the War 

The above extract makes it apparent that a naval 
engagement of no mean importance had taken place on 
Lake Champlain in early September of the year 18 14. 
What was it all about } 

While our Vermont settlers had been clearing land, 
selling ashes, raising wheat, building mills, opening quar- 
ries, establishing' iron works, founding schools, erecting 
churches, trading with Canada, and doing a lot of peace- 
able things which were good for them and the state as 
a whole,, the national government had begun a war with 
England which involved the settlements along the Cana- 
dian border and the Champlain Valley, interfered with 
the trade to Canada, and gave rise to a great naval bat- 
tle. That battle was what the American commander was 
reporting to the Secretary of the Navy. We shall learn 
more about it presently. 

172 



THE WAR OF 1812 1 73 

So far as Vermont was concerned the theater of this 
war was much the same as that of the Revolution, or 
to go back still farther, that of the French and Indian 
wars. Already the Americans had attempted an inva- 
sion of Canada. Now the British were going to operate 
from Canada and invade the states. 

In this emergency the distress of the northern border 
can be well imagined. It was settled enough to invite 
attack, but not enough to repel it. It is no wonder that 
the thinly populated towns were in a quiver of excitement. 
The almost unbroken wilderness stretching back from the 
boundary was peopled with imaginary terrors. The entire 
length of the Champlain Valley was exposed to border 
warfare; and although the north of the state was farther 
from the beaten line of invasion, it was penetrated by the 
Memphremagog and its tributaries and a few highways 
of traffic to the neighborhood of many settlements. 

Rumors of projected Indian raids came floating 
through the woods. Many people sought safety in flight 
and abandoned their homes until more peaceful times. 
Cattle were driven off, portable property removed, and 
cultivated farms left untilled. The more courageous 
remained at home, but stockades were built, and parties 
of volunteers were stationed at various points along the 
border. The main roads into Canada were at Troy, 
Derby Line, and Canaan. Guards were maintained at 
these places. At Derby Center barracks were built 
between the graveyard and the pond, with a guard- 
house on the hill near by. A company of men was 
raised from Derby, Holland, and Morgan, and spies were 
sent into Canada. Rumors that an invasion was to be 



1/4 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

made through Stanstead gave way to the more reason- 
able news that it was to be through the Champlain Valley. 
The Derby company and other similar ones throughout 
the state were then hurried off to Plattsburg. 

The United States entered this war with more enthusi- 
asm than prudence. The fortunes of battle were against 
her at the start. Her magnificent foreign commerce 
instead of being benefited by war was destroyed by it. 
By the close of the year 1814 there was scarcely an 
unarmed vessel on the ocean which dared carry the stars 
and stripes. Our national capital was taken by Brit- 
ish troops. In Europe, where the English were at the 
same time fighting Napoleon, that conqueror of nations 
was forced back step by step until he was forced off his 
throne. Then England sent her veterans to Canada. A 
force of eighteen thousand men began to move up Lake 
Champlain toward Plattsburg. 

Meantime there was a buzz of preparation in the 
Champlain Valley. During non-intercourse and the war 
business boomed at Vergennes, where the great falls in 
the river lent water power to mills and forges. It was 
here that Macdonough's fleet was fitted out. Here also 
were cast suppHes for the war — no less than one hun- 
dred and seventy-seven tons of shot. Such business 
employed furnaces and forges and kept rolling mill 
and wire factory humming. With magical rapidity the 
American fleet was built. The flagship Saratoga was 
launched the fortieth day after the great oak which went 
into her keel had fallen from its stump in the forest. 

No action worthy of note occurred on the lake until 
June, 1 813. On the second day of that month two 



THE WAR OF 1812 175 

sloops, the Growler and the Eagle, started from Platts- 
burg in pursuit of a couple of British gunboats which 
had put in a tantalizing appearance. The next morn- 
ing, while chasing the boats near the Canadian line, the 
sloops got cooped up in the narrow channel of the Sorel 
River, into which the boats had fled, within sight of the 
fort on Isle-aux-Noix. Land forces came up both sides 
of the river to help the galleys. Wind and current were 
dead against the sloops, and after a plucky fight of three 
hours they surrendered. Two more vessels were thus 
added to the enemy's fleet. 

On the 30th of July a British detachment landed at 
Plattsburg and destroyed the American barracks. The 
public stores had been removed to Burlington, and the 
enemy after leaving Plattsburg proceeded thither and 
fired a few shots into the town. The cannon on the 
shore began presently to play on them and they forthwith 
retired, leaving the town unharmed. 

For a time the northern army was located at Burling- 
ton, under General Hampton. On the 25th of Septem- 
ber Colonel Clark was detached with one hundred and 
two men and ordered to attack a small British force at 
St. Armand on Missisquoi Bay. He found the enemy un- 
prepared. After a ten-minute fight the entire English 
force surrendered, and the one hundred and two Ameri- 
cans marched one hundred and one prisoners back to Bur- 
lington. On the 19th of December Lieutenant Macdon- 
ough went into winter quarters at Otter Creek with his 
flotilla, and the northern campaign ended for that season. 

In the following spring thirteen English galleys, three 
sloops, and a brig passed up the lake and stopped at the 



176 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

mouth of the Otter Creek. They opened a spirited fire 
on the battery at the mouth of the river, intending to 
carry it, to force their way up the river, and to destroy 
the American shipping at Vergennes which was being 
made ready for service. But the garrison at the battery, 
aided by the Vermont mihtia, repelled the attack and 
the enemy turned again northward. The American ship- 
ping saved that day from destruction proved its worth 
four months later at the battle of Plattsburg Bay. 

As the summer months passed it became evident 
that a land battle would be fought on the New York 
side of the lake. The northern army had been ordered 
to the Niagara frontier, and the situation grew embar- 
rassing to the one brigade at Plattsburg. Prevost had 
concentrated at the head of the lake a large army of 
veterans for this invasion of New York. A strenuous 
cry for help was made to the neighboring states. 

Acting officially for the state of Vermont, Governor 
Martin Chittenden, son of the old governor, Thomas 
Chittenden, did not consider himself authorized to order 
the militia into service outside the state. The gover- 
nor was a Federalist. His Federalism, however, did not 
prevent him from issuing a call for volunteers. The 
response was a ready one. By the nth of September, 
the day when the great fight occurred in Plattsburg Bay, 
twenty-five hundred men from the Green Mountain State 
had reported at Plattsburg ready for service. 

Early in the morning on that same day the British 
fleet weighed anchor at Isle La Motte and sailed south 
around Cumberland Head, where Macdonough's vessels 
lay anchored in a line stretching thence to Crab Island 



THE WAR OF 1812 



17/ 



Shoal. On shore an American army of less than five 
thousand men stood on the south bank of the Saranac 
River waiting for the first move of the British force of 
three times their number which was drawn up on the 
opposite side. 

Between eight and nine o'clock in the morning the 
naval fight began. A shot from the Linnet struck a 




An Old Print of the Battle of Plattsburg 



hencoop on the Saratoga and released a gamecock. He 
hopped up on a gun slide and crowed ; and while the 
men laughed and cheered at the omen, Macdonough, 
having first kneeled in prayer on the deck of his ship, 
fired the first shot from one of the long guns. All the 
vessels were presently engaged. 

A double-shotted broadside from the British flagship 
struck the Saratoga squarely and sent half of her men 



178 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

sprawling on the deck. Forty were killed or wounded ; 
the rest picked themselves up and sprang again to the 
guns. Macdonough was working like a common sailor. 
As he stooped to sight his favorite gun a shot from the 
enemy cut in two the spanker boom and it came crash- 
ing down on his head, knocking him senseless. Within 
three minutes he was again at the gun. Then another 
shot came, tore off a gunner's head, and sent it into 
Macdonough's face with enough force to knock him to 
the other side of the deck. Such was the fashion of 
the fight. For more than two hours it went on, while 
all along the lake shore and through the valley and on 
the uprising hills there watched or listened to the rever- 
berating thunder of the guns the people to whom the 
result meant safety or flight. 

On the brow of one hill on an island opposite Platts- 
burg stood a boy of some thirteen years looking down 
at the fight in the bay below him. His father was in 
the American army. Long before sunrise that morn- 
ing he had the horses harnessed, and when the tops of 
the British masts appeared, coming south from Isle 
La Motte, he drove to the hill, hitched the horses to 
a tree, and found a spot where he could overlook the 
whole scene. After the British hauled down their colors 
he saw a boat with two or three men in it putting out 
from the shore close by. He wanted to see the British 
ships, so he ran down to the shore, called to the men 
in the boat, and together they rowed out to the scene 
of battle. 

He always remembered that scene. In November, 
1 90 1, although over one hundred years old, he retold 



THE WAR OF 1812 1 79 

the Story as vividly as though it had happened but 
the day before.^ He described the ship which he visited 
as being built of oak and planked with white-oak planks 
six inches thick. That planking was stuck solid full of 
balls. He says: 

The riggin' was cut all to pieces. There wasn't any of it left. 
Our folks used chain shot. That is, they bored holes in the can- 
non balls and took two balls and fastened them together with a big 
chain. They cut the shrouds and everything right off. The decks 
was the most awful sight I ever saw. It was — it was awful. 

Blood, blood was everywhere ! The decks was covered with 
arms and legs and heads, and pieces of hands and bodies all torn 
to pieces! I never see anything in this world like it! Seemed 
as if everybody had been killed. 

It seemed that way to others also. A British mid- 
shipman of the Confiance wrote to his brother as follows : 

Our masts, yards and sails were so shattered that one looked 
like so many bunches of matches, and the other like a bundle of 
rags. The havoc on both sides is dreadful. I don't think there 
are more than five of our men, out of three hundred, but what are 
killed or wounded. Never was shower of hail so thick as the shot 
whistling about our ears. Were you to see my jacket, waistcoat 
and trousers, you would be astonished how I escaped as I did, for 
they were literally torn all to rags with shot and splinters ; the 
upper part of my hat was also shot away. There is one of our 
marines who was in the Trafalgar action with Lord Nelson, w4io 
says it was a mere flea-bite compared with this. 

During the naval action something had been doing 
on shore. The opening volley of the Confiance had 

1 This account of the battle may be found in The Outlook, Nov. 
2, 1 90 1, where an interview with the survivor, Mr. Benajah Phelps, was 
reported. 



l80 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

been the signal for the land forces to begin. At the 
bridges and the fords of the river the brunt of the fight- 
ing fell. The father of the boy who watched the fight 
from South Island was an orderly sergeant and was sent 
up the river with his company to guard a bridge and 
a ford. So of course the lad found out afterward how 
it was done. 

They took every single plank off the bridge. Of course the 
British column had to go higher up stream then to the ford. That 
was about three miles up the Au Sable.^ Father's company 
guarded the ford all day. The woods was thick and the big trees 
and bushes came right down to the water's edge, and father's men 
hid in them. When the British stepped into the water to cross, 
they shot them right down. Some of them dropped in the stream 
and was carried away by the current. Not one of our men v/as 
killed. . . . The British tried hard to get across the river in 
Plattsburg but they could n't. Why, you see, all the Vermont 
mihshy was there! It was impossible to git across that river. 

Still another bridge was guarded by our Derby com- 
pany. When the British started up the Saranac to cross, 
the captain of this company was ordered to follow on 
the south side and destroy the bridge. He managed to 
keep a little ahead of the British and reached the bridge 
first. Then he and his men made a dash for the bridge, 
picked up the planks, and walked to the shore on the 
stringers, carrying the planks. Before they had finished, 
the British came up and opened fire. Bullets struck the 
planks as the men carried them off, and some of the 
men were killed. But the men finished the work, and 
then shot the British off into the water when they tried 
to cross on the stringers. 

1 It must have been the Saranac instead of the Au Sable, 



THE WAR OF 1812 l8l 

As soon as news came of the surrender of the Brit- 
ish fleet the army began preparations to retreat. They 
retreated so precipitately that provisions, ammunition, 
military stores, and wounded men were left behind. 
The total British loss has never been correctly ascer- 
tained ; the Americans lost not more than 1 50 men. 
Young Macdonough's fleet comprised 14 vessels of 2244 
tons, 8S2 men, S6 guns. The British fleet was some- 
what superior in equipment, — 16 vessels of 2404 tons, 
987 men, and *a total of 92 guns. On the approach 
of winter the victorious fleet was taken to Fiddler's 
Elbow, near Whitehall ; there it lies to-day beneath 
the waves. 

Macdonough was presented with a tract of land on 
Cumberland Head, overlooking the scene of his victory, 
as an expression of the appreciation of his services on 
this occasion. You will find this opinion expressed 
in Theodore Roosevelt's history of the Naval War of 
18 12: "Macdonough in this battle won a higher fame 
than any other commander of the war, American or 
British. . . . Down to the time of the Civil War he 
is the greatest figure in our naval history." He served 
his country later on foreign seas until his health gave 
way, and died at sea in 1825 on board a trading brig 
which had been sent by the government to bring 
him home. 

The Green Mountain men, who had rallied to the help 
of the frontier before the government at Washington 
had even asked their aid, received thanks from the 
commander at Plattsburg and thanks from the general 
government for their services. And here, so far as 



l82 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

its military features go, the War of 1812 ends for Ver- 
mont. The national policy which led to this war pro- 
duced some results, however, that were not strictly of 
a military nature, and it will be of interest to notice 
what they were. 

The Smugglers of Embargo Days 

It is one of the ideas which statesmen have that if 
you are going to war with a nation you ought not to 
trade with its people at the same time. It violates the 
principle of consistency, and this is very important in 
politics. But it sometimes happens that those who do 
the trading think differently from the politicians, and 
then one finds that secret or clandestine trading goes 
on, which is commonly called smuggling. This was what 
happened in the seaport towns of the Atlantic colonies 
before the Revolution, and this was what happened along 
the northern borders of Vermont before and during the 
War of 1812. 

The policy of withholding trade from Great Britain 
was not intended merely to prevent any such trade 
from growing up in the future, but it was designed to 
cut off the already existing trade. We have already 
seen what a blessing it was to the settlers of northern 
Vermont to have the markets of Canada open to them. 
The restrictive policy, therefore, bore upon them with 
corresponding heaviness. 

The first embargo act, which Congress passed in 
December, 1807, interfered with seaboard commerce. 
Since Vermont had no seaports it did not injure her; 



THE WAR OF 1812 1 83 

in fact it had the reverse tendency, for it turned more 
people toward Canada as a market for their timber, 
potash, and pearlash. But when this first embargo was 
supplemented by the land embargo of March, 1808, 
the shoe began to pinch. What made it worse, steam 
navigation was just opening on Lake Champlain, and 
people were beginning to see that good profits could 
be made from this lake trade. 

To the genuine distress of the people at this land 
embargo you must now add another element, the zeal 
of the federal politicians. They seized this opportunity 
to excite great dissatisfaction with the national govern- 
ment, and they alarmed its supporters in this state. The 
very day that the embargo law was received by the col- 
lector of the Vermont district he wrote to the Secretary 
of the Treasury that it would be impossible to execute 
that law without a military force. 

President Jefferson's embargo policy did not meet 
with uniform approval or success. In fact it was every- 
where systematically evaded. Jefferson had made a brief 
visit to Vermont in 1791, and if we may judge by the 
letter he wrote home he did not enjoy himself. Lake 
Champlain was muddy; there were not enough fish; the 
wind blew in his face; the weather was sultry; he under- 
stood that there was as much fever and ague and bilious 
complaint on Lake Champlain as in the swamps of Caro- 
lina; the land was locked up in ice and snow for six 
months. So it is probable that the President's personal 
recollections, added to the accounts which he heard of 
the great trade which was springing up with Canada, 
gave him a somewhat jaundiced view of the situation. 



l84 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

He forthwith issued a proclamation the preamble of 
which was as follows: 

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 

A PROCLAMATION 

Whereas information has been received that sundry persons 
are combined or combining and confederating together on Lake 
Champlain and the country thereto adjacent for the purposes of 
forming insurrections against the authority of the laws of the 
United States, for opposing the same and obstructing their execu- 
tion ; and that such combinations are too powerful to be suppressed 
by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers 
vested in the Marshals, by the laws of the United States : 

Therefore all such persons were ordered to disperse 
and military officers were directed to aid in subduing 
this trouble. The collector's fears may have been well 
grounded, but such a proclamation only served to make 
the situation worse. 

When the proclamation, which was published in full 
in Spooners Vei'mont Journal May 9, 1808, met the 
startled eyes of the inhabitants of this state it roused 
a variety of emotions. But one thing was sure, they 
did not relish being advertised as insurrectionists. 
Accordingly in the following month the same paper 
had the pleasure of printing the following memorial, 
with a petition that the land embargo be discontinued. 
It is worth quoting because it throws light on the situ- 
ation and reflects the general indignation at Jefferson's 
proclamation, besides stating pretty fairly the position 
of the petitioners. From this statement it would appear 
that Vermont in 1808 would not have been wholly 
averse to a free-trade policy. 



THE WAR OF 1812 185 

NO REBELS IN VERMONT 

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, ESQ., 

President of the United States 

A MEMORIAL 

of the Inhabitants of the town of St. Albans. 

. . . After an impartial investigation of the subject, so far 
as they are capable, your Memorialists cannot conceive how the 
object of the general Embargo, which was the protection of our 
'* vessels, our seamen and merchandise on the high seas," can be 
any way connected with the provisions of the law of March 12 ; 
or how our " vessels, our seamen and our merchandise on the high 
seas " can be exposed to any dangers from the belligerent powers 
of Europe, in consequence of a commercial intercourse, either by 
land or water, between the citizens of Vermont and Lower Canada, 
and other places in. like situations ; nor can they be taught^ that a 
law which forbids the exchange of such commodities as they do 
not want, for the conveniences and necessaries of life, and espe- 
cially for the sinews of war, the gold and silver of that nation, 
whose injury it seems, is contemplated by such law, can in any 
possible degree, tend to the welfare of the Union. 

The militia in the meantime was ordered out and 
stationed at Windmill Point to stop some rafts bound 
to Canada. The rafts, favored by darkness and wind, 
escaped the vigilance of the militia and made their way 
through to the forbidden land. This incident served to 
throw suspicion on the efficiency of the Franklin County 
militia, and they were superseded by United States 
troops. The whole course of affairs served to irritate 
the people, alienate a portion of them in this section of 
the state from the support of the national policy, and 
to cheer the smugglers in their traffic, while the resort 
to force stimulated them to more desperate resistance. 



I 86 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

Lake Champlain offered an unparalleled field for 
smuggling operations. An active contraband trade cen- 
tered at St. Albans. The northern part of the lake, 
with its many little shady nooks, secluded bays, wooded 
shores, and uninhabited spots, gave the illicit traders 
the assistance of nature and a most convenient high- 
way. In these hidden corners they could lie secreted 
by day and run their devious ways by night. 

Of all the boats engaged in the smuggling business on 
Lake Champlain the Black Snake was the most famous. 
She had been built originally to run as a ferryboat 
between Charlotte, Vermont, and Essex, New York. 
But her construction made her an excellent boat for the 
smugglers. She was forty feet long, fourteen feet wide, 
four and one half feet deep, built with straight high 
sides, and could carry one hundred barrels of potash at 
a load. With freight running from five to six dollars 
a barrel, you can easily see why smuggling paid. The 
vessel had a sharp bow, a square stern, a forecastle but 
no cabin, carried seven oars on a side, and was manned 
by a powerful and desperate crew. She was unpainted, 
but had been smeared over with tar, and probably took 
her name from the color. 

For months this boat plied her illegal traffic and either 
overawed or eluded the government officers. She was at 
length taken by the revenue cutter The Fly, and after a 
sharp fight all but two of the crew captured. These were 
taken later. The boat was caught up the Winooski River, 
whither she had gone for a cargo. Dean, one of the 
captured crew, was executed, and the rest were sent to 
the state prison, which had been built a few years before. 



THE WAR OF 1812 1 87 

When the war opened and the British army entered 
Canada the incentives to trade greatly increased. The 
presence of this large body of transients afforded a tem- 
porary market for provisions such as beef, flour, and 
other products of the farm, which created an itching 
palm in many a thrifty farmer's hand and led to contra- 
band trade by land. There was an opportunity to lay 
the foundation of handsome fortunes, and not a few 
supplies from settlers in Orleans, Caledonia, Franklin, 
and other near-by counties found their way across the 
line. High prices were paid at Stanstead. 

Of course attempts were made to intercept the trade. 
Officers were picketed at every road leading into Canada, 
and encounters with the smugglers were not infrequent. 
The latter then adopted the practice of going frequently 
in sufficiently large numbers to overawe or override the 
officers of the law. The northern trade, however, was 
seriously interfered with when military companies were 
raised for the war. The captain of the Derby company 
which has already been mentioned had orders to patrol 
a line extending from Essex County to Lake Memphre- 
magog. He picketed every road and stopped this illicit 
trade for a time. This not unnaturally roused the antip- 
athy of our neighbors across the border, for they were 
as anxious to buy as the settlers were to sell. 

As soon as the invasion of the Champlain Valley 
demanded the presence of the volunteers at Plattsburg 
the Canadians had a chance to vent their spite. The 
absence of the local troops left the Derby frontier 
unprotected ; and one dark night a few Canadians stole 
across the line from Stanstead, set fire to the barracks, 



l88 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

guardhouse, and officers' quarters, and made good their 
escape before the town was roused. But from that 
time until the close of the war it was not prudent for 
a Canadian to be seen on the streets of Derby after 
nightfall unless he was ready for a coat of tar and 
feathers. 

As the army's demand for beef increased encounters 
by land became more frequent. Through the northern 
woods, the back pastures, and in unfrequented places 
along the main roads smugglers took droves of cattle 
for the use of the British army. Eastward through 
the woods to the Connecticut River this scattered but 
exciting trade went on. 

In the year 1813a young lad from Albany was out 
one day in the timber, when he espied a large drove of 
cattle on what was known as Corey's smuggling road. 
This was a passage which the smugglers had cut in 
the woods, and it ran from Craftsbury through Albany, 
under the side of the mountain toward Lowell, coming 
out into the old Hazen road at a point about west of 
where Albany Center now stands. What the boy saw was 
a drove of beef on its way to feed the British army. 

Tingling with excitement, the lad rushed to Irasburg, 
where the United States officer of customs was sta- 
tioned. Major Enos, the officer, heard his story, and 
taking the boy up behind him on his horse, started in 
hot haste for Craftsbury, where he raised a posse of 
determined men. They took the old Hazen road and 
followed the smugglers toward Lowell. Cattle not being 
rapid travelers, the drovers were overtaken at Curtis's 
Tavern near Lowell Corners, baiting their live stock. 



THE WAR OF 1812 189 

The smugglers determined to rely on the sympathy 
of the Lowell people and fight. Posting two men at the 
bars of the inclosure where the cattle were quietly 
feeding, they threatened to shoot the first man who 
attempted to let them out. The major, on reviewing his 
forces, found that neither he nor the entire posse had 
brought so much as a horse pistol with them. But they 
had what was better, good courage. Two of his men, 
armed with stout canes, marched up to the guardians 
of the bars and informed them that the first man who 
fired a shot would be laid dead. Then a third man coolly 
took the bars out one by one and laid them aside. The 
entire drove of cattle passed out and were headed back 
over the mountain without a shot being fired. 

The smugglers tried to rally enough men to retake 
the cattle, but were not able to do so. The cattle, one 
hundred and ten in number, were taken to Craft sbury 
common that night and guarded by citizens till morn- 
ing. Then they were started for Burlington for the 
use of the American army. The smugglers followed 
after, still determined to retake their property. Several 
skirmishes occurred on the road, the last one of which, 
at Underbill, drew some blood. But the cattle reached 
their destination safely. 

In March, 18 14, the customs officers at Barton received 
word that a party of smugglers had crossed the line and 
were coming through that town. Securing assistance, 
the officers undertook to. stop the party at a hill near 
the present village of Barton Landing. After a smart 
fight the smugglers forced their way through. They 
carried cloth, steel wire, and other things merchantable 



IQO HISTORY OF VERMONT 

among settlers. Part of the goods they hid ; part was 
taken by the officers. Two of the men were made pris- 
oners, but the next day they escaped. In August of the 
same year a drove of cattle was seized in this town by 
the officers, but a rescue party came from Canada to 
retake them. 

Plenty of similar incidents took place elsewhere all 
along the border. F'ranklin County was the scene of 
many skirmishes. The smugglers frequently traveled 
by night, and went in such large companies that it was 
dangerous business for the officers to try to intercept 
them. The frequency of these occurrences shows how 
strong was the motive to trade. To the settlers it meant 
the possibility of getting a little hard cash, which was 
too rarely seen even in the best of times. The pres- 
ence of large numbers of British troops in the vicinity 
of the state created a temporary market for cattle at 
the farmers' doors ; and a man could reason that he 
had a right to sell his stock in his own dooryard to 
any purchaser without asking embarrassing questions 
about destination. 

The men who bought the cattle and drove them 
across the border clearly defied the laws of the land ; 
but they reaped an additional profit, and there are men 
in nearly every community who will take such risks. In 
Irasburg an association of smugglers was formed, and 
was not broken up until an association of anti-smugglers 
was formed in 1814 to defeat it. This company bor- 
rowed money to conduct its business of a man in a 
near-by town, and gave him a joint and several note as 
security. The taking and retaking of contraband goods 



THE WAR OF 1812 191 

furnished the two associations considerable activity dur- 
ing the war. Such times were conducive to the erection 
of jails and courthouses ; and the former were said at 
times to furnish insufficient accommodations for all who 
were qualified to lodge in them. 

We must remember that the settlements were more 
or less broken up, the times productive of lawlessness, 
and not a few of the best men away fighting for the 
American cause. We must remember, too, that party 
excitement ran high in this country at the time, and 
that New England especially had been opposed to the 
embargo, opposed to the war, opposed to the adminis- 
tration. Vermont's interests were essentially those of 
Federalist New England. She had elected a Federalist, 
Martin Chittenden, for governor. Communities were 
split up into factions and party spirit fairly boiled. So, 
while Vermont troops Vv^ere not backward to repel inva- 
sion, many speculative men were not backward to make 
a dollar out of the presence of the enemy. 

In this Vermont was not alone. It was said by the 
British themselves that two thirds of their army in 
Canada was living on beef supplied by American con- 
tractors. The road to St. Regis was covered with droves 
of cattle, and the river with rafts of goods, destined for 
the enemy's use. Such facts may not fill us with pride, 
but they show that Vermont was not peculiarly or will- 
fully errant, but rather was suffering with others the 
inevitable results of the war policy. The part which her 
sons voluntarily took in the military events of the war 
atones for the laxity with which a few of the stay-at-homes 
kept the laws. 



CHAPTER X 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 



Permanent Forces and Changing Forms 

The forest and the soil, these were the elements the 
settlers had to deal with, and social forms and forms of 
industry were governed by that fact. The settler was 

of necessity a farmer, or 
was engaged in those sim- 
ple, primitive, extractive 
industries which them- 
selves rest on the gifts 
of nature. The work of 
man, the complicated mod- 
ern system of organiza- 
tion which multiplies steps 
between producer and 
consumer, had not yet 
prominently appeared. 
The tilling of the soil 
has always been our first 
necessity. 

If our settler-farmer, 
chopping in the forest, 
broke his ax helve, which 
would rarely happen with such helves and skill as his, he 
made for himself another from the stick of tough ash 

192 




If he broke an ax helve, he 

MADE FOR himself ANOTHER 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 193 



seasoning in the shed. If one of the oxen broke a bow 
in pulling stumps over in the ''new piece," another 
bow, properly shaped in his own workshop, was ready 
for its place. Very likely the yoke itself was of his 
framing. With ax, saw, auger, shave, and ever-ready 
jackknife, there were few structural needs in house, 
shed, or barn which he could not supply. 

The demands which the conditions of life in a new 
land put upon him made him an adept at wood handi- 
craft, gave him 
skill and apti. 
tude, and created 
a reputation for 
the Yankee and 
his jackknife 
which has spread 
far and wide. 
The drafts upon 
his inventive 
genius were daily 
drawn, and a 
century of American invention has been the result. 
In his sickle and brain lay the modern reaper ; in his 
scythe and brain was a mowing machine ; the short-tined 
fork with which bronzed arms tossed the fragrant hay 
in wind and shine suggested the hay tedder. 

Beside the crude versatile power of his grandfather 
the helplessness of the modern man to do things for 
himself is appaUing. From top to toe, inside and out, 
he is dependent upon others than himself. The prod- 
ucts of all continents and zones appear on every table. 




Old-time Ax Heads 



194 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



The contents of the humblest homes bespeak the work 
of spindles, looms, factories, and toiling hands innumer- 
able. Democracy, aristocracy, and despotism are hall- 
marked on our dishes, clothes, and viands. It is quite 
conceivable that a century ago a Vermont farmer, clad 
in rough homespun, sat down to eat his humble meal in 
a home which he had built with his own hands, on a 
chair which he had fashioned, at a table which was of 
his making, and ate from homemade wooden dishes food 
which had ripened in no other sun than that which daily 
passed across the blue over his little clearing. 

If you follow 
this settler 
through the 
round of the 
changing sea- 
sons, you will 
find him at every 
step a marvel 
of resource and self-reliance. The forest gave him 
material for shelter and furniture ; the soil had in 
it sustenance for the inner man. With a few sheep, 
a few cattle, and some poultry acquired, you will find 
him on the road to prosperous living. With a grist- 
mill, a sawmill, and a blacksmith shop in the neighbor- 
hood, you will find a community that is almost self- 
sufficing. Add a carding mill, a fulling mill, and a 
tannery, and the possibilities of luxury appear. 

There is no standing still in the universe. From the 
teeming earth beneath our feet to the nebulous depths 
and innumerable stars that delight our uplifted gaze. 




Wooden r3isHEs 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 195 



all is in process of incessant change. The creatures 
who dwell upon the earth and are called men in the 
brief period of their visible existence here know no 
such thing as rest. When they disappear within their 
homes, and darkness comes which they call night, and 
they seek slumber and refreshment for their mortal 
frames, the life within their bodies pulses on, while on 
the other side of the orb there crawl forth into the 
sunlight other men who take up the ceaseless task of 
human toil. And the men of the East and the men of 
the West work for each other, although they know it 
not, for all human life 
runs into one seething 
stream. These men 
grow old and bent and 
gray, and their bodies 
are put away under the 
earth; but life and toil 
do not end thereby, 
for, lo, others have 

come to take their places. They begin where the others 
ended, so that no age among these men is like any other 
that was ever seen or known upon the face of the earth. 
They dig in the earth ; they sail on the waters to and 
fro ; they build ; they fetch ; they carry. They die also. 
All is in process of incessant change. 

In the quiet of this age which we now study were 
laid the foundations for the intricacy, the complications, 
the delicate adjustments of modern life. The demands 
which were put upon these people were broad as life 
itself; they began almost with the cradle and they 




Riven Lattice 



196 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

lasted to the grave. New needs, greater economy, 
wider knowledge forced upon men methods, resources, 
and adaptations before unknown. Some of the changes 
we may trace, but many more we must pass unnoticed, 
merely noting how a few things were then and how they 
are now. 

A Half Century of Pastoral Life 

It may appear futile to characterize with one adjective 
any period of modern life which covers so long a time 
as fifty years, but it is unmistakable that the almost 
unbroken stretch from the war which we have just 
noticed to the next one that will be our study marked 
a period of our people's history with characteristics 
which were unique and never to be repeated. Vermont 
is still a rural state, a state of villages and small towns 
and scattered farms instead of cities. Our entire popu- 
lation if massed together would not make a city remark- 
able for size. Yet the rural life of the first half of the 
last century was of a character distinct from that of 
to-day. The hardship of settling was over ; the condi- 
tions of life were easier ; neighborhoods settled down 
into conventional lines of rural industry and social 
intercourse. 

It was a transition period, as all periods are in a cer- 
tain sense. The significant features of modern organi- 
zation had begun ; but on the whole it was a breathing 
space preparatory to the tremendous shaking up which 
began before the Civil War, went on through that war, 
and is now whirling us on more rapidly than ever to 
some culmination which we can only remotely forecast. 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 197 



But in that age the stamp which comes from honest, 
toilsome life next the soil had not lost its character in 
the rush of our bespectacled age of specialization which 
substitutes machinery for muscle and divides labor so 
minutely that man becomes an automaton working on a 
piece instead of a creator of a whole thing. The modern 
drift of the wealthy classes back toward the country 
pays an unconscious tribute to-day to the superior ele- 
ments of country 
life in the bygone 
days. Men know 
no better means 
to conserve and 
perfect their 
physical lives than 
to do artificially 
and from choice 
what their fathers 
did naturally and 
from necessity. 
It was the simple, 
primal strength, 
the whole-hearted and sweet neighborliness, the well- 
rounded development of their lives, which made the 
sons of this state, ''Vermont men," everywhere the 
synonym of efficiency coupled with integrity, and still 
gives the oldest inhabitant license to talk on unchidden 
of the " good old times." 

The season of 18 16 tested the capacity of our 
early farmers for self-sufficiency, and so demonstrates 
one of the strong points in the life which we would 




Revolving Churn 



198 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



describe. Spring came that year unusually early. Farm- 
ers planted their crops in the hope of a great harvest, 

but in the 
month of 
June a belated 
frost smote 
the growing 
fields. On 
the morning 
of the 9th of 
that month 
farmers had 
to break ice 
before their 
cattle could 
drink in the 
troughs. 
Snow came in 
the northern 
part of the 
state and lay 
on the level 
one foot in 
depth, or was 
whirled by 
the wind into 
drifts two or 
three feet 
deep. The 
growing crops were cut down, the foliage of the trees 
was destroyed, and the hope of harvest was taken away. 



if 







The sap yoke borne on strong shoulders 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 199 

The benches did not put forth their leaves again that 
summer. 

Ready money was never plenty, for barter of home- 
grown commodities had always taken its place. But 
now, with the shortage of crops, through the greater 
part of the year not a dollar could be raised in many an 
interior town save from the sale of ashes. Ashes and 
salts of ashes were about all that could be exchanged. 
All forms of provisions were scarce and high ; there was 
no corn or rye except the little which could be brought 
from a great distance. Some wheat was made use of 




An Old Dugout Trough 

by harvesting it in the milk, drying it in ovens, and 
mashing it into a dough which could be baked or boiled 
like rice. Fresh fish and all forms of vegetable life 
which were wholesome were eaten. At Swanton there 
were ten fishing grounds between the falls and the lake 
where great seines were drawn, and hither came people 
to barter their maple sugar and other scanty resources 
for fish. We hear of no outside relief ; we hear of no 
starvation ; the settlers were self-sufficing. 

When the sun began to warm up the blood of 
the maples in spring our farmers began their sugar- 
ing, not in a comfortable sugarhouse with the modern 



200 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



^^1 


"<^p^~ 




g J* ■*,?„' '(P* 




SH gBf^iw^'i'v"" 


'^axd 


L^'iSiH^ 


,;^*^_^J 


^ 
="1^^ 


^^^' 


&t^^^ 


?-^ 



Old Sugar Kettles 



refinements of evaporator, arch, and sugar pans and the 
kixury of tin sap buckets and a gathering team, but 
in the open air, with a great kettle hung in front of 

the rude covering 
which sheltered 
the sap boilers 
through the night 
and from the occa- 
sional heavy fall of 
a " sugar snow." 
Instead of the neat, 
small hole in the 
maple, you would have found then the broad gash of 
the ax or gouge, or wound of the large bit. Instead 
of the gathering team you would then have seen the 
sap yoke borne on strong shoulders, with much trudging 
here and there among the maples, sometimes on snow- 
shoes, sometimes without. 

Then, for many frosty mornings, while the fish hawks 
began to circle 
near and the 
wild geese to fly 
north and the 
buds to swell in 
the hard-wood 
forest, there 
was the season's 

^ ^ r r i SUGARING UtENSILS OF FiFTY YEARS AgO 

stock 01 firewood 

to cut and work up. What a smell of new life in the air 
as the chips flew among the dank leaves and the pungent 
odor of the reeking earth crept up to the nostrils ! 




FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 20I 



When the buds burst into leaf on birch and maple 
there was rustling among the seeds stored away in 
mouse-proof cans and boxes, and a supply was brought 
out for garden and field; while the old-fashioned plow 
with its wooden mold-board turned over the rich loam, 
and the first bobolink gave sign that it was time to 
plant the corn, for the maples were ''gosling green." 

There was plenty 
of v/ork in spring, 
with soap to be made, 
sheep to be sheared, 
and fencing to be done 
before the young stock 
was turned into the 
timber and half- 
cleared lot that was 
called the back pas- 
ture. " Slash fence " 
was built most quickly 
and easily there ; but 
along the slope of the 
well-tilled piece in the Instead of the neat auger hole 
clearing, if boards ^°^ ^°^^° ^^^^ ^^^^^ "^"^ ^^^^^ 

GASH OF THE AX 

were not over plenty, 

the Virginia or snake fence zigzagged its way along in 

pasture and division lines. 

We find the farmer planting a greater diversity of 
crops than we plant to-day on these Vermont hills, 
because he had to produce so many different things for 
himself. For example, to supply the need of household 
linen, flax must be raised. A variety of grains was sown 




202 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

on every farm, — rye, barley, oats, winter wheat, Indian 
wheat, and Indian corn. All kinds of vegetables now 
in common use were then raised. After the crops were 
in, there were sure to be a few days of stone piling, 
stump pulling, and odds and ends of work to be done. 
Perhaps there was a short-handed neighbor to help, and 
tools to fit up and put in shape for haying. 




Getting in the Season's Stock of Firewood 

When the freshness and crispness of the spring morn- 
ings had burned off in summer's haze, the swing of the 
scythe through the grass in unvarying rhythmic motion 
told of strong backs and sinewy arms. Between hoeing 
and haying perhaps a day's fishing might intervene and 
take the farmer's boy into the cool depths of the forest 
beside some murmuring stream ; but for the most part 
the youngster was rapidly maturing in the company of 
his elders. There was no place on the farm where a 
boy could not be useful; sometimes he could do as well 
as a man, for he could turn the grindstone, spread the 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 203 



hay, and get the cows, and in the same tasks a man 
could not do more. Large famiUes were obviously a 
blessing. 

As good sport as fishing it must have been to line 
bees or go to June training, or to a raising at one of 
the neighbors', or where some public enterprise like the 
building of a church or schoolhouse needed helping 
hands. Then there were the roads to be worked, and 
the sheep to be washed in the pool, and perchance a 
neighbor to be helped 



with a clearing bee. 

On Sunday what 
a relaxation of tired 
muscles and what a 
straining of the mind 
when the entire neigh- 
borhood listened to 
the long forenoon and 
afternoon sermons, 
happily broken by a 
midday lunch with 

gossip around the church steps, the horse sheds, and in 
the neighboring graveyard. This must have been as 
welcome and as serviceable as a weekly newspaper. 
Little wonder that a tithingman was needed to prod 
the drowsy into the form if not the spirit of greater 
godliness, when wearied bodies and sated minds gave 
way before the combined attack of pew and pulpit and 
sank into natural and audible repose. 

Bass viol, psalm book, and pitch pipe were the usual 
requisites of the choir, and occasionally a flute or clarinet 




Foot pans, brought with live coals, 
furnished the warmth 



204 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



added strength and guidance to the voices. Hymns 
were 'Mined," and singing was general, the entire con- 
gregation joining in hearty and somewhat tuneful phrase 
in each line after it had been read aloud by pastor or pre- 
centor. More "minors" were rendered than our genera- 
tion is inclined to be doleful over ; but some of the old 
tunes bid fair to outlast the jingle of their modern rivals. 




Husking Corn an 



Churchgoing might be all very well in summer, when 
voices of birds and the drowsy hum of insects floated in 
through the open doors and windows; but it makes us 
shiver a little, even now, to think what it must have 
been in winter, in an unwarmed church where foot pans, 
brought with live coals, furnished the only means of 
warmth. 

In the autumn the harvest ! Then, amid the chang- 
ing red and gold and brown and russet of the forest, the 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 



205 



work of full fruitage went on. It was done by hand, — 
reaping, threshing, husking, shelling, — but it was labor 
lightened by good cheer as neighbors changed work, or 
met beneath the rafters of the barns to strip the ears of 
corn, or in the low-posted kitchen at a paring bee. On 
the next day after the paring bee the younger genera- 
tion would meet and string the apples before they were 
hung aloft in long festoons for drying. Dried apple, 
apple sauce, and 
apple butter were 
an unfailing re- 
source of the 
thrifty housewife. 

There was 
rhythm in all this 
life, whether you 
seek it in the al- 
ternating strokes 
of the flails on the 
threshing floor as 
the threshers beat 
out the golden 
grain, or in the low, continuous rustle of the husks as 
nimble fingers stripped the ears of corn. 

Corn shelling was a task for boys, and the occupa- 
tion gave a splendid opportunity to the inventiveness of 
youth, wondrous mechanisms being improvised as corn 
shellers. Corn was the source of much pleasure and 
pain. The golden kernels served as counters in many 
games of checkers and fox and geese, which served to 
while away long evening hours before the fireplace in 




Wondrous mechanisms were improvised 
AS corn shellers 



2o6 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



winter. This Indian grain was for years a staple article 
of diet in various forms whose names — hominy, samp, 
succotash — bespeak Indian ways of preparing it, taught 
to the early settlers. 

In the fall, too, butchering was done, and then came 

the time for souse and sau- 
sage, smoking hams and dry- 
ing beef, making mince pies 
and candle dipping. 

The work of the women 
was as important as that of 
the men. Into their custody 
went the wool and flax for 
spinning and weaving. It 
was no small task to keep 
clothed from head to feet 
the throng of sturdy boys 
and girls who made up old- 
fashioned families. In days 
when cloth production was 
part of the industry of every 
household, flax and wool 
demanded much attention. 
Now there is left in our 
homes scarcely a trace of 
the former textile art. About the only reminders we 
possess are the pretty foot wheels for spinning, which 
are sought after in old attics and brought down into 
modern parlors as relics of olden time. Few farmers 
raise flax now, and few wives would know what to do 
with it if they did. Home spinning and home weaving 




The Pretty Foot Wheel - 
A Relic of Olden Times 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 



207 



are gone, and knitting will soon be among the lost arts 
of New England housewives. 

Until the advent of the carding mill, the wool was 
carded by hand, after being cleaned and greased. This 
made the fibers parallel and ready to roll into fleecy rolls 
for the spinning wheel. Spinning was a fine art, but 
was practiced in every household. The quick back- 
ward and forward steps of the spinner would have 
counted miles in a day, while her flexile, alert, and 
supple movements 
of arms and body 
gave natural grace, 
poise, and dignity 
of carriage which 
all the artifices of 
physical culture 
can but poorly 
rival. 

After spinning 
came weaving. 
The presence of looms was not so universal as that of 
spinning wheels ; there were consequently in every town 
professional weavers who would take in yarn and thread 
to weave at stated prices per yard, or would if desired 
go out weaving by the day. In such ways itinerant 
craftsmen began to have their day. The cobbler was 
another familiar example. 

Fine patterns were sometimes made of woven goods; 
while from the flax skillful weavers made beautiful linens 
for sheets and coverlets, tablecloths and napkins, many 
of which have long outlasted their makers. 




Wool Cards 



208 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



The dyeing of the cloth was also a home process at 
first, and flowers of the field and the bark of various 
trees were used in ways we never think of. The bark of 
the red oak or hickory furnished pretty shades of brown 
and yellow; sassafras bark was used for dyeing yellow 
and orange ; field sorrel boiled with woolen was the first 
process in making black, which was finished by the use 
of logwood or copperas. The golden-rod, pressed of its 




A RaCx Carpet on the Loom 



juices, yielded material for a beautiful green when mixed 
with indigo and alum ; and the flower-de-luce furnished 
from June meadows a purple tinge for white wool. 

In all our social and economic life to-day the most 
striking factor is cooperation. Its forms vary, but its 
force is ever present. All products of our markets are 
made and distributed by it. All societies, labor organi- 
zations, religious and political institutions are standing 
illustrations of the principle. Now, if we look at the 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 209 

life we have just portrayed, we may see this same 
element permeating it all. 

Industrially, you find it in this fact : combined effort 
in the form of mutual assistance takes the place of divi- 
sion of labor. It also saves "hired help," and makes 
easily possible tasks which would otherwise have been 
performed with hardship. This is an economic explana- 
tion of the "bees " which were so common, — the logging 
bees, stone-piling bees, clearing bees, raisings, stump 
pulling and wall building, road breaking, haying, harvest- 
ing, and husking. There is in them a cooperative element 
of distinct economic value. 

And now notice their second value : they have an 
important bearing on the life of the times. Social rela- 
tions and social ethics were based on these same inci- 
dents to a large degree. Hard and exhausting labor is 
made easy by the hearty cheeriness of the neighbor. 
This neighborliness forced out of our early society all 
social stratification and made Vermont as purely a 
democratic state as one could easily find. Caste was 
unknown, because all people did the same things. The 
neighborhood was the social unit. 

The women had their cooperative work as well as the 
men. It took the form of quilting bees, house cleaning, 
preserving, and other forms of domestic economy, of 
which we have still a vanishing trace in sewing circles, 
ladies' aid societies, church suppers, and other activities 
which now take the form of public charities rather than 
of private industry. The young people also had common 
interests in mixed parties at the huskings and paring bees 
as well as in more purely social forms. 



2IO 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



Transition 

A. General Features 

Having traced in outline the conditions prevailing at 
the middle of the last century we must at once remem- 
ber that those conditions did not remain fixed. You will 
find in history that the height of advance of one genera- 




One-horse Chaise 

tion is usually — not always — the foundation on which 
the next one builds. For example, in one generation a 
city has omnibuses ; the next sees horse cars running on 
fixed tracks ; the next decade, perhaps, finds the horse 
cars supplanted by the electric trolley. The former 
methods which in their day were a distinct advance are no 
longer wanted, but are old-fashioned, wasteful, obsolete. 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 21 1 

In a similar way in the history of Vermont we must 
pass from stagecoach to railroad, from the hand card 
to the modern woolen mill. The change comes in the 
period we are now studying. 

From 1830 to the time of the Civil War the rough 
edges of pioneer life were being rounded off. Little by 
little new industries began to creep in and transforma- 
tions to occur in our simple communities. The little 
cabins of logs gave way to the low, wide houses with the 




An Old Turnpike Tavern 



great brick chimneys and fireplaces. The old hill roads, 
'* stage roads " as they are still called in the vernacular, 
were the lines of busiest thoroughfare only until the rail- 
road came. The industries of the valleys grew more 
and more felt ; the more level if less scenic river roads 
made their appearance ; and some of the old hill towns 
passed the climax of their glory and began to decline. 

Not a few towns in the state had a larger population 
in iSioor 1820 than they had in 1850 or i860, or have 
even to-day, and three entire counties — Orange, Wind- 
ham, and Windsor — declined between the census of 1 810 



212 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

and that of 1900. Addison County had a larger popula- 
tion in 1830 than in 1900. The population of the entire 
state remained practically stationary from 1850 to i860. 
In fact, if you look at the census tables you will find 
that the decade between 1820 and 1830 was the last one 
that shows any marked increase of percentage in the 
population of the state. 

The explanation of this is not that the state as a whole 
had become stagnant, or any particular sections of it 
gone to seed. Its explanation is found in the general 
conditions of the country at large. It is one of the signs 
of the enterprise and adventurous spirit of Vermonters 
that they have sought new fields of activity wherever 
they opened, and have carried the leaven of the Green 
Mountain State into many new commonwealths and to 
all quarters of the globe. The opening up of the North- 
west and Indiana territories — Ohio, Indiana, Illinois — 
and, after the Louisiana purchase, the opening up of 
the territory west of the Mississippi, drew heavily on the 
East. When cotton and woolen factories began to rise 
in Massachusetts and Rhode Island many of the girls 
and boys began to feel that farm life was drudgery, and 
that the city had something better for them ; and so 
they went, for better or for worse. Then, just at the 
middle of the century, the discoveries of gold in Cali- 
fornia sent a fever for sudden wealth into every town 
and hamlet of the East, and men went to the Pacific 
slope to make slaves of themselves for gold and dross. 
If we should undertake to write the history of the people 
of Vermont from this point, it would take us into almost 
every state and territory of the Union, into the mining 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 213 

camps of the West, to the seas, and to the lands that He 
beyond the seas. So for the remainder of this chapter 
we must Hmit our story strictly to the geographical 
boundaries of the state, and note only what went on 
therein in a few Hues of development. 

B. Agriculture 

Vermont remained primarily an agricultural state, and 
of her agricultural interests the production of wool was 
by far the most important single item up to the Civil 
War. We have already spoken of the textile arts prac- 
ticed in every home, and have indicated the changes 
which had begun, even before the War of 181 2, in the 
manufacture of cotton and woolen. When every home 
was a woolen mill in embryo, every farmer was naturally 
a shepherd ; and sheep breeding did not cease to be 
an important industry when the process of manufacture 
changed, — the market for wool remained. 

The first sheep commonly bred here were a hardy 
breed of English sheep, raised both for mutton and 
wool, although not especially good for either. Their 
wool was long and coarse, but as there were then no 
great aspirations for fine-wool clothing it did very well. 
With the perfection of the process of making really fine 
cloth, however, there came a demand for a finer staple. 
Fortunately the demand was met in a way which made 
Vermont a leader in the production of fine wool. 

William Jarvis of Weathersfield was United States con- 
sul to Portugal early in the last century. Just before 
the War of 18 12 he succeeded in sending to this country 
a large importation of Spanish merinos. Apparently 



214 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



the first importation did not attract much attention, 
being scattered about, but the stock was being intro- 
duced and herds of merinos built up. In 1828 Congress 
passed the "tariff of abominations," which, among other 
things, had the effect of sending up the price of wool. 
This fact and the increasing interest in merinos boomed 
sheep raising in Vermont. The price of merino wool 
was one dollar a pound in 1807; it rose to two dollars, 
then to two dollars and fifty cents during the war. 

No wonder that 
farmers went ex- 
clusively into the 
business of wool 
growing, or that 
manufactories 
went up on al- 
most every stream 
that had water 
enough to run the 
machinery. 

Of course that state of things was too artificial to last ; 
yet there was enough real economic foundation under 
the wool business to make it a leading agricultural fea- 
ture for years. The fabulous prices which had once 
obtained for merinos fell off, but that only served to 
allow their good qualities to be spread more widely, 
since it enabled men of moderate means to own supe- 
rior flocks of sheep. At home and abroad the fineness 
of Vermont fleeces gained an enviable reputation, and 
her merinos were sought after as foundations for herds 
the world over. 




Cheese Basket with Ladders 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 21 5 



The relative importance of wool growing at the middle 
of the century is shown by the fact that there were 
then more than twice as many sheep kept as all other 
farm stock put together, — horses, swine, mules and 
asses, dairy cows and other neat cattle. There were 
then over a million sheep within the state. In 1840 
there had been 1,681,819. In that year there were 
3,699,235 pounds of wool produced. Wool was the great 
market product. 

There were, to 
be sure, other 
things sold from 
the farms in large 
amounts. Exports 
of horses, cattle, 
and swine, as well 
as sheep, were im- 
portant. Morgan 
horses were a well- 
known type, fa- 
mous for nerve, 

endurance, and toughness. More than two million 
dollars' worth of dairy products were produced in 
1840. This amount seems all the more important 
when we remember that dairying was hardly made a 
specialty in Vermont farming until after 1830; that 
butter and cheese were made mostly for home con- 
sumption, and that up to 1840 butter seldom brought 
over ten cents a pound. 

The cheese-factory system originated about the mid- 
dle of the century, but it hardly seems to have held its 




Cheese Press 



2l6 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

own beside the development of butter making. In 
some farm homes to-day the old, laborious process of 
cheese making may be seen. Associated dairying began 
about the time of the Civil War, so it hardly falls within 
this period of our study ; but the improvement of dairy 
stock had already begun by the introduction of strains 
of Ayrshire, Holstein, and Jersey blood. The type of 
cow began to change from that of the beef animal to 
that of the dairy animal. 

The history of the improvement of farm implements 
would be an interesting study in itself. We find it 
almost impossible to understand how our forefathers 
got along with the kind of tools they had. Yet the 
change to better forms was not always easy to make. 
For example, in 1825 a plow with a cast-iron mold- 
board was offered for sale in Poultney for the first time. 
It had already been introduced in New York and the 
Middle States, and was gradually working its way into use. 
But the farmers of Poultney would not buy it. They 
were afraid it would break ; and they were sure it would 
not work among the rocks and stones of Vermont. 
Besides, the old plow was good enough. Any one could 
do the woodwork on it, and a third-rate blacksmith 
could put on straps of iron. But finally one farmer after 
another was induced to try the new plow ; they found 
it did not break but did better work than the old plows; 
and by 1 840 the wooden plow was a thing of the past. 

So, little by little, old things were laid aside and new 
things took their places. In i860 there were thirty- 
two establishments in the state making agricultural 
implements. Although their annual product was not 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 217 

large when compared with other manufacturing indus- 
tries, nevertheless it was significant of the transition 
which was taking place in the conduct of agriculture 
as in all else. 

C. Transportation 

At the close of the War of 18 12 the means of trans- 
portation were still primitive enough so that bulky 
crops could not be taken to distant markets. This 
determined the nature of farming to the extent that 
grain was still fed to pork which was carried to Boston 
in the annual winter trip from every town; that cattle 
were driven on hoof to market ; and that potatoes were 
turned into starch and whisky. The new land furnished 
a sure crop of potatoes, and usually a heavy one; the 
starch factories and the potato distilleries furnished a 
sure market ; both contributed to sap the life of many 
a splendid old hill farm and leave only a sickly crop of 
wiry, worthless grass as its inheritance. 

About 1820 the Champlain canal opened communi- 
cation between the lake and New York by way of the 
Hudson River, and brought a better market for the 
lumber of the valley than Quebec had been. From 
that time until about 1843 the lumber trade turned 
thither. The old Quebec raftsmen clung to their for- 
mer methods of rafting their lumber to market; but 
the new companies took modern craft, canal boat and 
schooner. After our native timber was exhausted, Bur- 
lington remained a center for the trade in lumber, which 
now, reversing the former course of its history, began 
to come from Canada to us, 



2l8 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



The western part of the state had in its water route 
through the lake and canal and river a more econom- 
ical access to New York markets than the eastern part 
ever had to the Boston market till the railroad came. 
After the opening of the Connecticut and Passumpsic 
Railroad to Boston the eastern portion of the state was 
greatly stimulated. The affiliation of the western part 
of the state with New York and the eastern part with 
Boston, as centers of trade and news, remains to this day. 




P'*^'^"-^^lWlife^^^' 



■■;«»-"%«»■**« 



msiis^ 



Bird's-eye View of Burlington Half a Century Ago 

In the early part of the century the separate states 
had done something for themselves in the way of better- 
ing their roads, canals, rivers, and harbors ; and as the 
surplus in the national treasury grew, politicians began 
to talk about a federal scheme of internal improve- 
ments as a way to spend the money. Jefferson was 
quite carried away with the idea. But the War of 1812 
interrupted the conversation, the surplus vanished, and 
the whole scheme disappeared, though it left the subject 
of internal improvements in the air. The Erie Canal 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 



219 



was opened in 1825, and its success turned attention 
to this particular form of improvement. Considerable 
interest was roused in this state, and plans were dis- 
cussed for the construction of canals. The Hudson 
River and Champlain Canal was an undoubted benefit. 
A canal board was appointed, and projects were con- 
sidered for the construction of a canal between lakes 




Birthplace of Levi P. Morton, 1824, at Shoreham 



Memphremagog and Champlain, also for navigating the 
Connecticut. Some surveys were made, but nothing in 
the way of construction was attempted ; and presently 
railroads superseded canals in public estimation and 
from 1830 became the topic of the time. 

Before the railroads were built some attempts were 
made to navigate the Connecticut by steamboats. In 
1827 a boat called the Barnet was built, which succeeded 



220 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

in going as far up the river as Bellows Falls ; but it was 
taken back to Hartford and broken up, as its exploit did 
not warrant repetition. Two years later two boats were 
built to run between Bellows Falls and Barnet ; but 
there were too many obstacles to be overcome, and their 
history was limited to a few experimental trips. 

The talk about railroads went on from 1830 to 1840. 
Surveys were made along the valleys of the Connecti- 
cut and Passumpsic rivers to the Canada line, near Lake 
Memphremagog ; from Burlington along the Winooski 
Valley to the Connecticut ; from Bennington to Brattle- 
boro ; from Rutland to Whitehall, and elsewhere. Com- 
panies were incorporated as early as 1835. -But hard 
times came on, a financial cataclysm swept the coun- 
try, and the beginning of the enterprises was deferred 
for some years. 

In 1843 another railroad was incorporated, stock was 
subscribed for, and the Vermont Central began work in 
1847. In the following year the first passenger train 
was run, from White River Junction to Bethel. One 
hundred and seventeen miles of road were opened, from 
Windsor to Burlington. Between 1848 and 185 1 the 
Vermont and Canada road laid fifty-three miles of rails, 
from Rouse's Point to Burlington. Still the work went 
on. Within a few years a road was built from Essex 
Junction to Rouse's Point, and from Rutland to Ben- 
nington, to Whitehall, New York, and to Troy, New 
York. The Connecticut and Passumpsic Railroad was 
extended to St. Johnsbury, and pushed through to New- 
port in 1862. Laws had provided for the construction 
of telegraph lines before the railroads were in operation. 






I 5P / i'Xkwe^ 



-ii,v/ » ,-»- !i^"'X'£nosbu>v/i' „?'<< ) " 

Fairfield ' h 




briage^ 



rlinglon. 



)lchesteH .^S* 






.N.Strat/or 



Concor, 
tJohnsbury^^iJ\Vfiefcl 




Railroad Map of Vermont 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 221 

The coming of the railroads marked an era in the 
history of Vermont as it has in every other state. Rail- 
roads could fetch and carry ; they created new markets 
and transformed country life. The lumbering industry 
took a new lease of life, and sawmills whose business 
had been limited to local needs now found a wider demand 
for their products. All crops could now be marketed, 
and the slow, tedious trips by horse teams to Portland 
and Boston were no longer necessary. The business of 
the country store expanded, and a host of middlemen 
arose to take the butter, cheese, eggs, wool, and other 
products of the farm. Ready money became more 
plentiful, and store goods began to take the place of 
homespun. 

D. Manufacturing and Business 

We cannot hope to cover the history of manufactur- 
ing during half a century in the brief space here allotted ; 
but perhaps we can cite enough important enterprises to 
illustrate the kind of change which was going on in Ver- 
mont's manufacturing and commercial work. To begin 
with, we ought to notice that although there was an 
important growth of manufacturing previous to i860, 
and especially in the decade just preceding that date, 
there was not proportionately a large amount of Ver- 
mont wealth invested in manufacturing industries, or of 
Vermont people engaged in conducting them, . 

A few figures will make this plain. The total value 
of farm property in i860 was ^114,196,989. There 
were at that date probably over thirty thousand farms 
in cultivation. There were, however, all told, only 



222 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

1883 separate establishments devoted to manufactur- 
ing, and the total capitalization of these was less than 
$9,500,000. The population of the state was 315,098 ; 
but the manufacturing wage earners numbered only 
10,497, that is, about one in every thirty of the 
population. 

But if we compare now the figures for i860 with 
those for 1850, we shall notice another fact which is 
quite as striking. In 1850 there were 1849 establish- 
ments, employing 8445 wage earners, and capitalized at 
almost exactly $5,000,000. The wages paid in 1850 
were something over two million dollars ; in i860 they 
were over three million. The value of the products 
made was over eight million five hundred thousand 
dollars in 1850; over fourteen million five hundred 
thousand dollars in i860. That is to say, summing 
it all up, in ten years practically the same number 
of establishments employed twenty-five per cent more 
people, paid them over thirty-six per cent more wages, 
and made over seventy per cent more in value of 
products. 

From this little study of figures we learn two things : 
There was a rapid increase in the value of manufactured 
goods just before the Civil War, but there was a com- 
paratively slight increase in the number of manufac- 
turing establishments. From this we may go on still 
further and draw an inference : There had been develop- 
ing a limited number of large and expanding industries 
instead of a large number of small and limited industries. 
This brings us to the heart of the whole matter ; for 
such a course of development is only possible when 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 223 

local markets are disregarded. This, then, is the transi- 
tion which has come to Vermont's manufacturing, — she 
has ceased to produce for herself alone and begun to 
produce for others. 

This is a far different state of things from that of the 
earlier days when the blacksmith shop, the sawmill, the 
gristmill, the tannery, the carding mill, and the fulling 
mill composed the list of enterprises that could boast of 
being manufactories. It is true that many small estab- 
lishments lingered on, supplying local needs ; but the 
other side of the case becomes startlingly apparent when 
we notice that out of the total $14,637,837 produced in 
i860 over one half was sent out by concerns dealing 
with the five products, wool, marble, lumber, leather, 
and grain. 

A few illustrations will serve to show better this 
evolution of industry. In 181 5 Joseph Fairbanks came 
into the Moose River Valley and set up a grist and saw 
mill at St. Johnsbury. His sons had a mechanical turn 
of mind and went into the wheelwright and foundry 
business. They manufactured hoes, pitchforks, cast- 
iron plows, and stoves. They gained a reputation for 
skill and rehability, and in 1830 were awarded a contract 
for making hemp-dressing machines, which were required 
for cleaning the hemp and preparing the fiber for market, 
— a new industry then springing up. Some method of 
weighing rough hemp by the wagonload was sorely 
needed. This led to an investigation of the principle of 
levers as combined in weighing machines, and resulted 
in the invention and perfection of the platform scale 
by Thaddaeus Fairbanks. What was started as a mere 



224 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

incident of a comparatively small business grew into an 
extensive commerce in an article that set the standard 
for the world. 

An equally humble beginning was that made by Jacob 
Estey in 1846, when he commenced to make musical 
instruments, and drove about the country selling them 
from his own wagon. His business also grew into the 
largest one of its kind in the world, — the Estey Organ 

Works. 

- „_____ In this period 

"~' our three great 

quarrying indus- 
tries were put 
on a firm foun- 
dation. The be- 
ginning of mar- 
ble quarrying 
has been men- 
tioned in an 
Birthplace of Chester A. Arthur, 1830, • i • 

AT Fairfield earlier period ; it 

had an extensive 
growth before the Civil War. Granite quarrying was 
begun about the time of the War of 18 12, but did not 
greatly develop until after the Civil War. The first slate 
quarry opened in the state was at Fairhaven, where work 
began in 1839. Some eight years later roofing slate 
began to be made, and the industry has maintained 
considerable magnitude ever since. 

In this period Vermont enterprise extended into other 
fields of business. Some of the most honored fiduciary 
institutions of the state began their existence before 




FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 225 

the middle of the last century. Banks were incor- 
porated, and fire and life insurance companies were 
established. The Vermont Mutual dates from 1827, 
the National Life from 1848. 

Vermont inventiveness deserves a tribute all the more 
since it has not always exacted tribute or recognition. 
Morey's invention of the steamboat has already been 
mentioned. But the use of electricity as a moving 
principle in machinery 
was demonstrated by 
Thomas Davenport to 
be practicable half a 
century before the world 
was ready for the dis- 
covery. The electric 
motor, the electric tele- 
graph, the electric loco- 
motive, and the electric 
piano were products of 
his brain. Professor 
Alonzo Jackman of Nor- 
wich University conceived the feasibility of the subma- 
rine cable in 1842. Phineas Bailey of Chelsea devised 
a phonetic method of shorthand in 18 19 — eighteen 
years before Pitman's. The six-shooting revolver was 
invented at Brattleboro fourteen years before Colt's 
weapon was made. Last but not least in its beneficent 
influence comes the modern cook stove, the creation of 
P. P. Stewart of Pawlet. 

These inventions, like the new order of manufacturing 
estabUshments, were not for local needs. They appealed 




Chester A. Arthur 



226 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

for wider application. Thanks to developed transporta- 
tion and the rapid transmission of news, Vermont had 
got in touch with wider needs ; she had gone out to seek 
the markets of the world. 

E. Education 

The work of education in the state went on quietly, 
unobtrusively, attracting no great attention, heralding no 
startling results; yet there were men here who were in 
a sense educational prophets, for they laid the founda- 
tion in a humble, inconspicuous way for some of the most 
important developments of our American educational 
ideals. Transition in educational aims and methods con- 
sisted of development rather than change up to the time 
of the Civil War. 

The results of this work may be briefly summed up 
as follows : The beginning of some educational system 
for the state, including supervision ; the training of teach- 
ers ; the opening of special schools for women ; and the 
growth of educational institutions, especially academies, 
colleges, and military schools. Not all these are due 
to public or state enterprise. Indeed, in such matters, 
the work of making a beginning, as well as the con- 
ception of the ideals, falls often to the lot of those who 
are full of service for others, whose vision pierces the 
future, and whose hopes are reenforced by invincible 
confidence. That is, they are teachers in the real 
sense of the word. 

At first, although the fathers of the state laid the 
foundations for a broad, comprehensive educational sys- 
tem, there was little done to perfect such a system in 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 22/ 

its details. The separate districts had their own way, 
secured their own teachers, and paid them at the end of 
the term without supervision or oversight by town or 
state or any outside authority. The inevitable result 
of such a method, or lack of method, was that there were 
no guaranties of competent instruction, because there 
was no standard of requirements put upon the teachers ; 
and no guaranties of equal advantages to the different 
schools, because there was no efficient supervision. Some 
schools might be good, others poor, others very poor. 




A Type of the "Old Red Schoolhouse" 

The effort to inaugurate a system began to bear fruit 
about 1827, when it was proposed that a board of com- 
missioners be appointed to collect and disseminate edu- 
cational information, and that licenses be required of 
teachers. Both recommendations were adopted for a 
few years. Then, in 1845, another effort was made to 
put the teaching force of the state on a higher level. 
The plan of licenses was permanently adopted; schools 



228 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



were put under the supervision of town and county 
superintendents; and a state superintendent of educa- 
tion was annually appointed. In a few years the county 
superintendents were discontinued, and in 1851 the 
state superintendent ceased to be appointed. Five 
years later the state board of education was created. 




Interior of the "Old Red Schoolhouse" 

These efforts were tentative, and not altogether success- 
ful; yet a beginning had been made which was some 
approach to a system of state control. 

In 1823 Samuel R. Hall, a home missionary and 
pastor of the Congregational Church at Concord, in 
Essex County, established a seminary for the training 
of teachers. It was incorporated by the legislature the 
same fall. In 1825 it was reincorporated under the name 
of the Essex County Grammar School. Teachers' classes 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 229 

were formed, and a special course of study was arranged. 
In 1829 "Father" Hall published a volume of lectures 
on school keeping, " the first attempt of the kind on the 
Western Continent." The work ran through several 
editions. Ten thousand copies were sold to the state of 
New York and distributed through the school districts 
of that state. Mr. Hall also introduced the use of the 
blackboard into schools, organized the American Insti- 
tute of Instruction, and was for 
a time principal of Andover 
Academy. 

The Middlebury Female ^l*t 

Seminary, which had been ^^ ^^ 

established in 1800, the same 
year as the college, was taken 
charge of in 1807 by Miss 
Emma Hart, who later became 
Mrs. Willard, the founder of 
Troy Female Seminary, which 

set a hifi^h standard for the „ ^ ,. ^ 

^ Hon. George I*. Edmunds 

education of women. A few 

years later, in 18 14, she opened a school at her own 

home. 

The State Teachers' Association was organized in 
1850; endowed libraries began to appear; some of the 
schools of academic grade were founded which have 
lasted on, doing good work to the present time ; the 
work of the colleges went on nobly. Among the gradu- 
ates of Middlebury College were young men who were 
destined to make educators, authors, scholars, statesmen, 
and college presidents. The University of Vermont 



^ /** 



230 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

began to send forth youth who were to fill offices 
of state, — judges of higher courts, members of Con- 
gress, governors of Vermont, and. even one Vice-Presi- 
dent, — besides college presidents and many college and 
seminary instructors. Norwich University, the oldest 
military college in this country with the exception of 
West Point, was established in 1820. Its graduates 
served in the second Seminole War, and have served 
in every subsequent war of the country. No less than 
two hundred and seventy-three commissioned officers 
from this institution served in the Mexican and Civil wars. 

Two men who long honored 
their state and the nation in the 
Senate chamber at Washington 
put themselves on record as 
0t champions of the cause of edu- 

^ S P l> ^^ cation in no narrow or mean 

^^4w^ "■ sense. George F. Edmunds was 

^^^^^^ the great exponent of a national 

^f^BB^ ^\ university at Washington ; Justin 

^"^1^^^ \ S. Morrill successfully labored 

■^ .^ ^ *i for the establishment of agricul- 

tural colleges in all the states. 
Hon. Justin S. Morrill ^^^ congressional grant of 1 860 

to provide education in the agricultural and mechanical 
arts in every state in the Union was the most important 
single educational enactment ever passed in America. 
This act alone would be sufficient to perpetuate Senator 
Morrill's name as the author of what is destined to be 
the most practical, democratic, and beneficent educa- 
tional work of this country. 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 231 

The Impending Crisis 

While our state was thus passing through manifold 
and important changes, the United States had come to 
the worst experience that can ever face a government, 
— the storm and stress of a great civil war. When a 
country is attacked from without, its people flock together 
to support the common cause, and thus form a more com- 
pact and cohesive union within. But when a country 
begins to break up within, and envy, hatred, and strife 
fill the hearts of its people, woe be it ! The saying 
is very old and very true that a house divided against 
itself shall not stand. This is the third time in the 
history of the state that we have had to stop in our study 
of its development to follow the consequences of war in 
which it has been involved by the course of national 
politics. The other two wars were wars to defend so- 
called rights from foreign aggression. This one is a 
war to preserve the Union from the disruptive forces 
which have long been acting within. 

Since the early settlement of these American colonies 
the keeping of slaves had been a part of their history. 
There had been white slaves and black slaves, slaves in 
the North and slaves in the South. But white servi- 
tude had never been so prevalent as that of negroes, 
and the terms by which whites were bound to forced 
labor allowed them to work out their freedom in a given 
term of years. So white servitude outgrew itself in 
time. Not so with negro slavery. A black slave was 
a slave for life, and all his children. All children of 
the mother, too, were slaves, although the father might 



232 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

be white. A drop of negro blood was like the mark of 
Cain, — it tainted the man for life. 

Negro slavery, therefore, was self -perpetuating. It 
would last as long as the negro race endured. In the 
North, for climatic and economic reasons, black slavery 
had but a slight hold ; but in the South all the condi- 
tions were favorable for it, and it became so strongly 
rooted in the social and economic order of things that 
it was not easily dislodged. The men who formed the 
Constitution of the United States should have pre- 
vented this. They saw slavery as a cloud on the hori- 
zon of national politics. It was a little cloud then, no 
larger than a man's hand, but it certainly should have 
needed no prophet Elijah to tell them this cloud would 
brew a storm of blood. They had written in their own 
Declaration that all men were created free and equal ; 
they should have made that principle true to the very 
letter in their new State, if they believed it to be true 
for themselves. 

Slave trading from Africa ceased to be legal ; but 
smuggling of slaves began, and but one conviction 
ever occurred in the history of the country. When the 
importation from Africa fell off, the matter was in no 
wise helped ; for in the northern tier of slaveholding 
states negroes were bred, taken to the South like droves 
of cattle, and like cattle sold at the auction block. So 
the thing went on, till men had vast estates in slaves 
and little else. A plantation was worth nothing without 
slaves to work it. Skilled slaves were worth hundreds 
of dollars each ; and a Southern man could not see why 
his slaves — his sole support — should be taken from 



FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR 



233 



him any more than a Northern man could have seen 
the justice of taking away his less valuable horses or 
cattle or sheep. 

The larger the country grew the larger grew this 
question with it. It got into politics and saturated 
every public measure. Instead of settling it, the poli- 
ticians temporized, procrastinated, and compromised. 
The issue grew and grew until it passed the point of 
any more compromises, and then war came. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE CIVIL WAR 

I am desirous to learn your views as to the expediency of legisla- 
tion in the Free States at the present time touching the affairs of the 
General Government and the action of certain Southern States. . . . 
Should the plans of the Secessionists in South Carolina and the cotton 
States be persevered in and culminate in the design to seize upon the 
National Capital, will it be prudent to delay a demonstration on the 
part of the Free States assuring the General Government of their 
united cooperation in putting down rebellion and sustaining the Con- 
stitution and the dignity of the United States Government? — Extract 
from a letter of Governor Erastiis Fairbanks to the governor of Con- 
necticut in 1861. 

Vermont's Status on the Slavery Question 

The position of Vermont on the question of human 
slavery has never been equivocal. Her official expres- 
sion on the matter was made in the very first article of 
her constitution in the following words: 

No male person born in this country, or brought from over 
sea, ought to be holden by law to serve any person as a servant, 
slave, or apprentice, after he arrives to the age of twenty-one 
years, nor female in like manner, after she arrives to the age of 
eighteen years, unless they are bound by their own consent, after 
they arrive to such age, or bound by law for the payment of debts, 
damages, fines, costs, or the like. 

Before the constitution had been distributed the 
officers of the new state began to interpret the spirit of 
this article ; and from the time when Ebenezer Allen 
in 1778 freed the slave Dinah Mattis, who had been 

234 



THE CIVIL WAR 235 

taken among the prisoners of a raid near Ticonderoga, 
and gave her a certificate of her emancipation duly 
recorded in the office of the town clerk at Benning- 
ton, down to the President's call for troops, Vermont 
had stood stanchly for the freedom of man. In 1803 
Judge Harrington of the Supreme Court said that a 
bill of sale from Almighty God was the necessary proof 
that one man could hold another as his slave. 

In 1828 the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison was 
at Bennington, editing XhQ Joiniial of the Times, which, 
although run primarily for campaign purposes in the 
political race of John Quincy Adams against Andrew 
Jackson for the presidency, showed unmistakably the 
trend of its editor's views on the slavery question. 
Garrison announced as one of the great objects of his 
life the emancipation of slaves. Clear and vehement 
were his utterances. " We are resolved to agitate this 
subject to the utmost," said Garrison; and he sent to 
Congress a petition signed by twenty-three hundred 
and fifty-two citizens of this state requesting Con- 
gress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. 
The government of that district rested with Congress, 
and it was literally true that negroes were driven to 
market past the doors of the national capitol wherein 
sat the chosen apostles of American liberty ; but the 
appeal was ahead of the times. 

Public men in the state kept an anxious eye on the 
great lurid cloud of national politics. Time passed with- 
out bringing war, until in 1861 the governor of the 
state wrote to the governor of one of the neighboring 
states on the duty of the North in this issue. This 



236 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

action of the chief executive of the state shows that he 
was fully abreast of the times and aware of the signifi- 
cance of the action of the South in this great crisis. 

Vermont's Preparation for the War 

When President Lincoln issued his call for troops, 
Vermont presented no exception to the other Northern 
states in lack of adequate preparation for even the 
slightest military service. It seemed as if the entire 
North lay in a state of lethargy. Federal forts and 
arsenals had been appropriated by Southern militiamen ; 
state after state had passed ordinances of secession; 
they even invaded the North and transferred one hun- 
dred and thirty thousand stand of arms from the heart 
of New England ^ to Southern depots, and no one lifted 
a finger to stop it. 

After the War of 1812 military drills had been kept 
up for a time, after a fashion ; but the martial spirit 
flagged before the tasks of peaceful industry, and after 
1845 there was hardly a semblance of military organi- 
zation left within the state. The state had given up 
making appropriations for the support of the militia. 
One by one the uniformed companies had disbanded, 
and June trainings became a jest and sport for the 
countryside. 

From 1858 to i860 pubhc interest in the militia began 
to be aroused. By the close of the latter year there 
were several organized companies again in existence, 
nominally forming a brigade of four regiments. They 

1 From the United States Arsenal at Springfield, Massachusetts. 



THE CIVIL WAR 237 

had as arms smooth-bore percussion and flintlock mus- 
kets ! On New Year's day, 1861, the state possessed 
less than a thousand stand of arms, seven six-pound 
fieldpieces, five hundred and three Colt's pistols of no 
use whatever, and about a hundred tents. One regi- 
ment could be equipped with superannuated stuff. 

On the 1 2th of April, that same year, the booming 
of cannon sounded through Charleston Harbor. Fort 
Sumter, one of the three or four military posts in the 
South which remained in federal possession, was fired 
upon. In two days the garrison surrendered. President 
Lincoln's call for troops was sent broadcast through the 
North, and war was on. 

Now witness a change. No longer the North was sleep- 
ing. Mass meetings and flag raisings were so numerous 
that the newspapers could not find space to tell of them. 
From every pubUc building flew the stars and stripes, 
and from private buildings, too, so long as flags could 
be obtained, or red, white, and blue bunting could be 
had for love or money. A public meeting was held at 
Burlington on the i8th of April, in the town hall; but 
hundreds were turned away from the doors, unable to 
find room within. Hon. George P. Marsh, then on the 
eve of his departure as United States minister to Italy, 
was the principal speaker. As he addressed the crowded 
hall, from one of the galleries were flung the broad folds 
of the stars and stripes ; in an instant the audience were 
on their feet, in a contagion of enthusiasm and emotion, 
cheering, shouting, and crying like children. 

Meantime men and money were offered all over the 
state. Private persons offered to the state sums ranging 



238 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

all the way from one thousand to twenty thousand dol- 
lars each. Towns voted to raise money on their grand 
list, and subscribed to equip the militia and support 
the families of volunteers. Banks at MontpeUer placed 
twenty-five thousand dollars each at the disposal of 
the governor to equip the troops ; at Burlington and 
St. Albans they offered ten per cent of their capital, and 
more if needed. The students of the University of 

Vermont and Middlebury 
College organized into com- 
panies and began to drill. 
4^ .»5^ Railroad and transportation 

companies offered their lines 
and boats for the gratuitous 
transportation of troops and 
.^ ^ munitions of war. Wherever 

companies were forming, the 
*? "4 women labored to make uni- 

forms for the recruits. 

So much for public opinion. 

Erastus Fairbanks -rt. cc. r ^i ^ i. u i 

The officers of the state had 

The First " War Governor "of 

Vermont not bccu idlc. Whcu thc 

President called for troops 
Governor Fairbanks at once issued a proclamation 
announcing the outbreak of armed rebellion, called for 
a special session of the legislature, and for a regiment 
for immediate service. 

We have seen that there was not a regiment in the 
state ready to march. But when the field officers of 
the militia met at Burlington on the 19th of the month 
to select the companies which should make up the first 



THE CIVIL WAR 239 

regiment of Vermont volunteers it was reported that 
eight companies — from Bradford, Brandon, Burhngton, 
Northfield, Rutland, St. Albans, Swanton, and Wood- 
stock — were substantially filled and in efficient condi- 
tion. Other companies were in partial readiness, and 
preparations were everywhere being made. 

The special session of the legislature had been called 
for the 25th of April. The members were greeted 
at the capitol with the roar of the two brass field- 
pieces which Stark had taken from the Hessians at 
the battle of Bennington pouring out the national 
salute of thirty-four guns. Within twenty-four hours 
both houses had passed by unanimous vote an appro- 
priation of one million dollars for war expenses. In 
forty-two hours from the time it met the legislature 
adjourned, with its work completed. It had passed 
acts providing for the organizing, arming, and equip- 
ping of six more regiments for two years' service — 
the government had called for only three months' 
troops — and had voted seven dollars per month pay 
in addition to the thirteen dollars offered by the 
government ; had provided for the relief of the fam- 
ilies of volunteers in cases of destitution, and had 
laid the first war tax, — ten cents on the dollar of 
the grand list. 

This work was without precedent, and was equalled 
by the records of but few states. Vermont had voted 
for the war an appropriation of a larger sum than had 
been voted by any other state in proportion to the popu- 
lation, and had made provision for her sons and their 
families, which took from first to last four millions from 



240 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

the treasury of the state, to say nothing of the other 
expenses of the war. 

Commissions for the recruiting troops were issued by 
the governor on the 7th of May, and three days later 
the services of fifty full companies were offered to the 
government, — more than twice as many as it was then 
ready to accept. 

Vermont Troops in Service 

The Civil War practically involved the conquest of 
the South. In point of military tactics, therefore, it had 
to be an offensive war on the part of the Union forces, 
and was, conversely, defensive on the part of the South- 
ern army, with the exception of Lee's projected invasion 
of the North. 

The Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi River 
cut the field of action into three great sections. The 
Mississippi and its tributaries made important naval 
operations possible in the West, and there the Federal 
forces were almost uniformly successful. Not so in the 
East. The scene of conflict was here mainly in Vir- 
ginia, which was for four years the battle ground of 
two armies: one — the Army of the Potomac — trying 
to defend Washington, conquer Virginia, and capture 
Richmond ; the other — the Army of Northern Virginia 
— trying to defend Richmond and Virginia, attack 
Washington, and invade Maryland and Pennsylvania. 

It was on this ground, in the region around and 
between the two capitals, Washington and Richmond, 
where the fighting came thick and fast, that the 



THE CIVIL WAR 241 

Vermont troops rendered the heaviest part of their 
service in the Army of the Potomac. 

The First Regiment was ordered at once into service ; 
for, said General Scott, '' I want your Vermont regi- 
ments, all of them. I have not forgotten the Vermont 
men on the Niagara frontier." So they went forward. 
Their term of enlistment expired in August of the 
same year, for it was not anticipated that the war would 
be of long duration, and the President's call was for only 
three months' service. But their service did not end ; 
for when the period of this regiment's enlistment expired 
five out of every six of its rank and file reenlisted ; 
the field, staff, and line officers returned to the serv- 
ice almost to a man ; and no less than one hundred 
and sixty-one of its members became officers in Ver- 
mont regiments and batteries which were afterward 
organized. 

In the fall of 1861 the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, 
and Sixth regiments were formed into the Vermont 
Brigade, as it was then called ; and later, when a second 
brigade was formed of regiments subsequently enlisted, 
it was known as the First Vermont Brigade, or the " Old 
Brigade." It will be absolutely impossible to follow 
the history of these troops in all their service. Indeed 
it would tax our limits to tell the history of any one 
regiment. For instance, Benedict, in his history, Ver- 
moiit in the Civil War, which is our authority for this 
period, says of the Second Regiment : 

" It had a share in almost every battle fought by the Army of 
the Potomac, from the first Bull Run to the surrender of Lee; 
and its quality as a fighting regiment is indicated by the fact that 



242 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

its list of killed and wounded in action numbered no less than seven 
hundred and fifty-one, or forty per cent of its aggregate of eighteen 
hundred and fifty-eight officers and men ; while its ratio of killed 
and mortally wounded was more than eight times the general ratio 
of killed and mortally wounded in the Union army. 

In March, 1862, McClellan, then in command of the 
Army of the Potomac, began what is known as the 
Peninsular campaign, a plan to advance on Richmond, 
the Confederate capital, from the east. He was slow 
in moving, and found the Confederates ready for him, 
fortified at every point. By the end of May he had 
succeeded in getting within ten miles of Richmond ; but 
Lee and ''Stonewall" Jackson attacked him so per- 
sistently that he decided to withdraw, and then they 
continued hammering away at him during the seven 
days' retreat. This campaign gave the Vermont troops 
plenty of service. They took part in engagements at 
Lee's Mill, WilHamsburg, Golding's Farm, Savage's 
Station, and White Oak Swamp. 

The battle of Lee's Mill was one of the bloodiest in 
proportion to numbers in which our troops took part 
during the war. The first assault on the enemy's works 
was made by the Third Vermont Regiment, four com- 
panies of which, led by Captain Samuel E. Pingree (later 
a governor of the state), made a daring dash across War- 
wick Creek, assaulting and carrying the rifle pits of the 
enemy. 

After McClellan had decided to abandon the siege of 
Richmond and to retreat, the Vermont troops once more 
rendered brilliant service in the battle of Savage's Sta- 
tion. The importance of this action becomes apparent 



THE CIVIL WAR 243 

when we learn that the success of McClellan's retreat 
depended first of all on getting an army of one hundred 
and fifteen thousand men, with an immense army train 
of five thousand wagons, through the White Oak Swamp. 
This great natural barrier stretched half way across the 
peninsula south of Richmond, squarely across his line 
of retreat, and was passable only through one narrow 
way. The stand of the rear guard, therefore, at Savage's 
Station was, as Benedict says, "3. notable passage in 
the history of the Peninsular campaign, and the battle 
will ever be memorable to Vermont ers as that in which 
one of our regiments, the Fifth, suffered the greatest 
loss in killed and wounded ever sustained by a Vermont 
regiment in action." 

The Fifth Regiment had orders to advance through 
the woods in front of them. A regiment of Union troops 
recently recruited had thrown themselves on the ground 
in the woods and refused to advance. They were under 
fire for the first time. The men of the Fifth Vermont 
walked over them and marched on. ''I remember as 
if it were yesterday," said one of the sergeants, "the 
way we tramped over that line of cringing men, cursing 
them roundly for their cowardice." The enemy's battery 
was raking the woods with a terrible fire, but the regi- 
ment went on into the open field. They kept on till 
they met the enemy, made a bayonet charge, then halted 
and opened fire on the infantry line across the hollow in 
front of them. 

Meanwhile they were themselves exposed to the fire 
of two regiments, a battery of grape and canister, and a 
raking cross fire of musketry from the edge of the woods 



244 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

to their left. In twenty minutes every other man in 
Une had been killed or wounded. And yet the regiment 
held its position, silenced the enemy in front, and did 
not go back until hours afterward, when it was ordered 
to the rear with the brigade. The men had sixty rounds 
of cartridges and used them all, taking the guns of their 
fallen comrades when their own became heated. The 
surgeon who visited the field the next day said in a 
letter : '' Thirty men of the Fifth Vermont were found 
lying side by side, dressed in as perfect a line as for a 
dress parade, who were all stricken down by one dis- 
charge of grape and canister from the enemy's battery." 
One company had three commissioned officers and fifty- 
six men in line ; seven came out unharmed. Of the rest, 
twenty-five were killed or died of their wounds. 

The second eastern campaign of 1862 — the second 
Bull Run campaign — resulted in the Union army being 
driven back toward Washington and the Confederates 
being emboldened to carry the war into the North. 
Then came the storming of Crampton's Gap and the 
battle of Antietam, and more good work by the Vermont 
troops. 

The Fourth Regiment especially distinguished itself 
at the storming of Crampton's Gap, where on Sep- 
tember 14 it captured, on the crest of the mountain, a 
Confederate major, five line officers, one hundred and 
fifteen men, and the colors of the Sixteenth Virginia. 
These colors are preserved among the trophies of the 
War Department at Washington. 

A war correspondent of the New York Tribune 
reported the following from Antietam : 



THE CIVIL WAR 245 

Smith was ordered to retake the cornfields and woods which 
had been so hotly contested. It was done in the handsomest style. 
His Maine and Vermont regiments and the rest went forward on 
the run, and, cheering as they went, swept like an avalanche 
through the cornfield, fell upon the woods, cleared them in ten 
minutes, and held them. They were not again retaken. The 
field and its ghastly harvest remained with us. Four times it had 
been lost and won. The dead are strewn so thickly that as you 
ride over it you cannot guide your horse's steps too carefully. 

After the bloody battle of Antietam McClellan was 
superseded in command by General Burnside. The Con- 
federates fortified Marye's Heights, behind Fredericks- 
burg, on the south side of the Rappahannock. The 
position was almost impregnable, but Burnside attacked 
it, only to be repulsed with a terrible loss. *' Fighting 
Joe " Hooker was then placed in command of the Army 
of the Potomac. 

From the middle of December, 1862, to the end of 
the following April the Army of the Potomac remained 
quietly in camp opposite Fredericksburg, and the Con- 
federates retained their strong position on Marye's 
Heights. At length Hooker began to operate. In the 
storming of Marye's Heights, May 3, 1863, at the second 
battle of Fredericksburg, the Vermont brigade accom- 
plished more than ever before to establish its reputation 
as a fighting brigade. A New Jersey officer describes 
the taking of Marye's Heights as follows : 

As we approached the foot of the hills, we could see the rebel 
gunners limbering up their pieces. The Second Vermont, which 
had got a little ahead of us, were now moving up the steep slope 
on our right, in beautiful line ; and presently we also commenced 
the ascent. A terrible volley thinned the ranks of the Vermonters ; 



246 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

but they pressed on, and the enemy began to give way. As we 
reached the top of the hill we could see the flying foe, crossing 
through a gully and ascending the rise of ground opposite. The 
terrible Fredericksburg Heights had been captured. 

The heights were carried so rapidly that the Con- 
federate general, Jubal Early, who had the greater part 
of his division within supporting distance, could not 
reenforce his lines in time to save them. Benedict says : 
*' No similar assault on the Southern side during the war 
equaled this in brilliancy and success ; and in these 
respects it was surpassed on the Northern side, if at 
all, only by Lookout Mountain and the final storming of 
Lee's Hnes at Petersburg." The regiments moved with 
the precision of ordinary drill, none rushing, none lagging. 
Nevertheless Lee outgeneraled Hooker at Chancellors- 
ville and in four days dealt the Army of the Potomac 
a terrible blow. 

He again decided to invade the North. Then came 
the campaign which led to Gettysburg. Lee crossed 
the Potomac and entered Pennsylvania. The Army 
of the Potomac kept between him and Washington. 
Hooker was succeeded by General Meade. On July i, 
1863, the armies came together at the little village of 
Gettysburg, and the Union troops being driven back in 
a bloody battle to a strong position known as Cem- 
etery Ridge, Meade determined to fight the decisive 
battle there. 

On the next day the Confederates attacked vigorously, 
drove back the Union left, and secured a position which 
threatened the whole line. Meantime the Sixth Corps, 
which had been lying quietly at Manchester, some thirty 



THE CIVIL WAR 



247 



miles from the scene of battle, was rushed over the 
Baltimore and Gettysburg turnpike in the most rapid 
and exciting march in its history. The fate of the 
army and indeed the outcome of the whole war might 
depend on the presence of these troops. It was then 
that General Sedgwick gave his famous order : *' Put 
the Vermonters ahead and keep the column well closed 
up." They had a reputation for marching as well as 
for fighting. 

At General Meade's headquarters, about six o'clock 
that evening, there stood an anxious group of ofificers. 
The Confederates had been forcing back the Union 
left, and the sound of battle grew louder and nearer. 
Presently a cloud of dust appeared down the Baltimore 
pike. What did that cloud hide ? Had the enemy gained 
the rear ? As the officers stood looking through their 
field glasses, one said : " It is not cavalry, but infantry. 
There is the flag. It is the Sixth Corps." 

During the next day and the final day of the battle 
the Second Vermont Brigade won laurels on the left 
center. The Confederates were driven out of one posi- 
tion on the extreme right of the Union lines, and every 
attack was repelled. Lee determined to make one more 
assault, and sent Pickett with fifteen thousand men 
against the Union center. They were repulsed with 
awful loss. The fate of the charge was sealed by 
the flank attack of Stannard's brigade. Veazey and the 
Sixteenth Vermont Regiment charged upon and dis- 
persed two Confederate brigades under Wilcox. This 
action closed the battle of Gettysburg. Lee's invasion 
of the North was ended. 



248 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

General Grant, who had been winning brilhant suc- 
cesses in the Western campaign, was now placed in entire 
charge of the Union armies ; Sherman began his famous 
march to the sea; Thomas destroyed Hood's army; and 
Grant, with the Army of the Potomac, took up again in 
May, 1864, the task of destroying Lee's army and taking 
Richmond. 

Then followed the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsyl- 
vania. Cold Harbor, and Petersburg. A thousand Ver- 
monters were killed or wounded in the first day's fight- 
ing of the Wilderness campaign. Two hundred fell the 
second day. The Third Regiment went into the first 
day's fight with about five hundred muskets, and in the 
next month's fighting lost two out of every three men. 

The Fourth Regiment fought at Spottsylvania in the 
front line. At Cold Harbor it was again engaged. In 
the movement to Petersburg it suffered the greatest loss 
by capture that it ever experienced. Out of two hun- 
dred men taken to the skirmish line, but sixty-seven 
answered to the roll call the next morning, with three 
commissioned officers. Nearly one half of the captured 
men died in Confederate prisons. The colors were saved. 
Although it was only one of thirty-two infantry brigades, 
the Vermont brigade suffered one tenth of the entire loss 
of Grant's army in killed and wounded in the Wilderness 
campaign. 

Lee forestalled Grant and occupied Petersburg. Grant 
sat down to a nine months' siege before it. Lee stood 
the pressure until it became intolerable; then he sent 
one of his ablest generals, Jubal Early, with a detach- 
ment to penetrate the Shenandoah Valley and seize 



THE CIVIL WAR 



249 



Washington, thinking that this might divert Grant. 
Grant gave Sheridan forty thousand men and sent him 
after Early. Early reached Washington, but was just 
a little too late to seize it; while Sheridan on this Shen- 
andoah campaign drove the Confederates back, destroyed 
everything eatable that could be found to support an army, 
and rejoined Grant at Petersburg in November, 1864. 

In this campaign of the Shenandoah Valley, Vermont 
troops did good service; they shared in the engagements 
at Charlestown, the Opequan, Winchester, Fishers Hill, 
and Cedar Creek. The battle of the Opequan restored 
the lower valley to Union control, put an end to invasions 
in Maryland and to raids against the national capital. 
At Cedar Creek what looked like a Confederate victory 
was turned into a complete rout, upon Sheridan's appear- 
ance after his famous ride of twenty miles from Winches- 
ter. Out of a total of forty-eight guns captured, the 
First Vermont Cavalry brought in twenty-three. 

Then back to Petersburg. As soon as it was possi- 
ble to move in the following spring the Northern soldiers 
began the final campaign of the war. The South was 
a mere shell. Sherman had moved at will; and not an 
important seaport remained in Southern hands. Grant, 
rejoined by Sheridan, made it impossible for Lee to hold 
Richmond any longer. The South had put every fight- 
ing man and every dollar she had into the war. Lee's 
army dwindled as his men began to despair of their 
cause. When Sheridan on his way to Jetersville asked, 
"Where are the rebels.? " an old colored patriarch, lean- 
ing on the fence, replied, " Siftin' souf, sah; siftin' souf," 
with a smile and wave of his hand. The Union army 



250 ■ HISTORY OF VERMONT 

outnumbered the Confederate two to one. Lee tried to 
escape by the valley of the Appomattox to the mountains, 
hoping possibly to unite with Johnston's forces. But at 
last the Northern soldiers were too quick for him. He 
was caught and cornered with the van of his starving 
army at the Appomattox Courthouse. He surrendered, 
and the war came to an end. 

In the operations which led to the end Vermont 
troops again had their share. The Second Regiment 
once more distinguished itself in the final assault on the 
defenses of Petersburg, with many instances of individ- 
ual gallantry. A portion of the Ninth Regiment was 
the first to carry a Union flag into the rebel capital. 
After the fall of Richmond the Second Regiment joined 
in the pursuit of Lee, and in a skirmish with the rear 
guard on the evening of April 6 fired the last shot 
discharged in action by the Sixth Corps. The Third 
Regiment did its last fighting in the final assault on 
Petersburg. This regiment lost two hundred ofificers 
and men who were killed or died of wounds received in 
action, and many more died of disease or starvation 
while prisoners in the enemy's hands. The Fifth Regi- 
ment led the storming column when the Sixth Corps 
broke through the enemy's lines in front of Petersburg 
on the 2d of April, and first planted the colors of the 
Sixth Corps on the enemy's works. The final state- 
ment of the regiment shows that of all the Vermont 
regiments it lost the largest percentage of men killed 
and mortally wounded in action. 

The old brigade was engaged in thirty battles. Not one 
of its colors fell into hostile hands. General McMahon 



THE CIVIL WAR 



251 



said: " No body of troops in or out of the Army of the 
Potomac made their record more gallantly, sustained it 
more heroically, or wore their honors more modestly. 
The Vermont brigade were the model and type of the 
volunteer soldier." 

Besides the seventeen infantry regiments which Ver- 
mont sent from first to last into the war, she sent also 
three batteries of light artillery, one regiment of cavalry, 




The Vermont Soldiers' Home at Bennington 



and a larger proportion of sharpshooters than any other 
state, not to speak of the Vermont men who served as 
staff officers, soldiers in the regular army, and as privates 
and commissioned officers in other states. 

Her cavalry regiment was raised in the fall of 1861, 
and was the first full regiment of mounted men raised 
in New England. It was the largest regiment but one 
sent from Vermont, comprising from first to last twenty- 
two hundred and ninety-seven officers and men. It had 



252 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



a notable history. Previous Vermont regiments had 
been raised by state authority; the cavalry was raised 
under the direct authority of the United States. 
The regiment served in the Shenandoah Valley, at 
Gettysburg, in the Wilderness campaign, and under 
Sheridan. 

The organization of United States sharpshooters was 
an attempt to meet the marksmen of the Confederates 
with equally skilled shots armed with long-range rifles. 
They were a distinct branch of the service. There 

were two such 
regiments raised 
in the first year 
of the war, of 
whose total num- 
ber this state fur- 
nished over one 
sixth. They 
shared in almost 
every battle 
fought by the 
Army of the Potomac, and made a brilliant record, sec- 
ond to that of no other equal number of enlisted men. 

Some of Vermont's sons occupied important positions 
as staff officers. To them fell the duties of keeping the 
troops supplied, of giving the soldiers medical and sur- 
gical care, of keeping regimental and brigade and corps 
accounts and records, of preparing and transmitting 
orders in camp and field. 

Vermont had a higher percentage of men killed in 
action than any other state, while the percentage of the 




The St. Albans Raid 

Demanding Funds at the Bank 



THE CIVIL WAR 



253 



old brigade was higher even than that of the state. The 
five original regiments of this brigade gave 4747 officers 
and men to the service of the government ; 4070 more 
were added to these during the war, making an aggre- 
gate of 8817 officers and men. The total wounded was 
2328; 774 died in Union hospitals; 578 were killed in 
action; 395 died of wounds; 135 died in Confederate 
prisons. 

Vermont sent to the war ten men out of every hun- 
dred of her popu- 
lation. She was 
credited with 
nearly thirty- 
four thousand 
volunteers, out 
of a total enroll- 
ment of thirty- 
seven thousand 
men liable to do 
militia duty. 
None of her 

colors were ever yielded in action, while in proportion 
to total numbers her troops took more rebel colors 
than those of any other state. In 1867 General Sheri- 
dan, in the State House at Montpelier, said: ''When I 
saw these old flags I thought I ought to say as much 
as this : I have never commanded troops in whom I had 
more confidence than I had in Vermont troops, and I 
do not know but I can say that I never commanded 
troops in whom I had as much confidence as those of 
this gallant state." 




The St. Albans Raid 

Seizing Horses on Main Street 



254 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



With one more incident we will close the story of 
the war. On the 19th of October, 1864, a party of 
strangers came into the village of St. Albans in small 
squads, scattered about the place, and made a secret 
and simultaneous entrance at the three banks. They 
closed the doors of the banks, made the inmates prison- 
ers, relieved the institutions of their available assets, 
and made their escape, firing pistols promiscuously. 
They also attempted to set fire to some of the buildings. 

Excitement was 
intense ; it was 
feared that the 
party was but an 
advance guard of 
a larger invading 
host. At Mont- 
pelier, where the 
legislature was in 
session, members 
gallantly volun- 
teered to serve in 
military capacity to repel the invaders. But no invasion 
came. A party was hastily formed, and started after the 
raiders, following them into Canada. Two hundred thou- 
sand dollars had been taken from the banks. Fourteen 
of the men were taken, and eighty-six thousand dollars 
were recovered. After this affair two companies of 
cavalry were raised to protect the northern frontier 
from further similar invasion. The companies were 
stationed at St. Albans, and did guard duty for about 
six months. 




The St. Albans Raid 

The Burning of Sheldon Bridge 



CHAPTER XII 

FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO THE SPANISH WAR 

Effects of the War 

Vermont shared in the general disturbances caused 
by the war, and it was many years before the direct 
traces of the great national calamity disappeared. Busi- 
ness cannot cease when war is in progress, because the 
same number of people have to be provided for, whether 
they are fighting or working. They must eat, be clothed 
and sheltered. Since the armies took so many able- 
bodied men from the field of industry, it naturally fol- 
lowed that the products of labor grew scarcer and the 
prices of it rose. And as prices of merchandise rose 
the correspondingly greater value of the labor of the 
workers became apparent and wages rose. 

Farm values went up along with the general rise in 
prices, for the products of the farms are among the 
first necessities of life. Stock, cereals, wool, and other 
farm produce went rapidly up to nearly or quite double 
the former prices. Some farmers took advantage of 
the unusual conditions and held their products till they 
reaped large profits ; others tried the same experiment 
and held them too long, until prices went tumbling down 
again. The wages paid to farm laborers advanced, and 
eventually the prices of farms themselves. 

255 



256 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

Along with the derangement of vakies went financial 
derangement. The paper money which was issued to 
tide the government along depreciated, and there was 
as high a premium on gold as on anything else. The 
high scale of prices could not be maintained from the 
very nature of the case, because it was due to causes 
which were not going to operate continuously. The war 
ended, and in the years which followed, until prices 
had reached their normal level, there was a decline of 
values which operated with hardship on many. Men 
who thought that war brought them wealth found that 
peace brought them poverty. Young men returning 
from the war, and buying farms at the inflated prices 
which prevailed, soon found that they must pay for 
them with the proceeds of labor, farm animals, and 
crops which were steadily falling, and that when paid 
for the farm itself would be worth only a fraction of 
the purchase price. Such men often lost everything 
they had. 

Many of the returning veterans sought fortunes in 
the West rather than attempt to take up life again in 
the old communities. Little had been saved from their 
pay during the war ; many had families at home to be 
supported. Middle-aged men found themselves forced 
to begin life anew. Some were too shattered in health 
to be equal to the task. Some took up soldiers' rights in 
western lands and adapted their agricultural knowledge 
to new conditions. Others went back to the old farms. 
Still others engaged in manufacturing and business. 

The westward movement, thus stimulated by the war, 
remained active for another reason. So long as our 



FKOM THE CIVIL WAR TO THE SPANISH WAR 257 

interests remained agricultural, any increase in popu- 
lation beyond a certain limit was bound to overflow, 
because the agricultural density of population is not yet 
great in America. That is, when people live on farms 
they are not so thickly placed as when they live in cities 
or villages. We have seen that Vermont is a state of 
farms and small villages rather than of great centers 
of population. Until manufactures increase sufficiently 
to support large villages and cities, we must expect to 
find the population remaining about stationary and the 
natural increase of our families going away to other 
parts. 

If you look at the census returns you will see the 
extent to which this has been the case. From 1 860 to 
1 870 the state showed a very slight increase in popula- 
tion ; from 1870 to 1880 it dropped still lower, being 
only one half of one per cent ; while from 1880 to 1890 
it reached low ebb, there being practically no gain in 
population for the decade. From 1890 to 1900 it 
began to increase very slowly. From now on but little 
gain can be expected. For a good many years the 
agricultural population is not likely to reach a much 
greater density; while the additional number of people 
who can be supported by new industries is so slight in 
comparison with the total population of the state that 
it will not be likely to have a large percentage of 
increase. This does not mean that Vermonters are 
dying out ; it means that they are carrying their 
influence into other communities, where they take up 
the battle for right and the struggle for good citizenship 
and good order. 



258 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

Growth of Industry 

Any one can ascertani the extent and the diversity of 
the industries of Vermont by looking into the last census 
report. It will be the function of this section, there- 
fore, instead of attempting to describe the variety which 
modern life has imposed upon our industrial arts, to 
point out some less apparent features in the develop- 
ment of our most important industries, separately and 
in allied groups. 

According to the census of 1900 the ten leading 
industries of the state are : factory production of butter, 
cheese, and condensed milk ; flouring and gristmilling ; 
foundry and machine-shop work ; the manufacture of 
hosiery and knit goods ; the production of lumber and 
timber ; planing-mill manufactures, including sashes, 
doors, and blinds ; marble and stone work ; the manu- 
facture of monuments and tombstones ; the making of 
wood pulp and paper ; and wool manufactures. 

Now, if you will observe this list, you will notice that 
certain of these industries — and they are the most 
important ones — deal with the natural products of the 
farms and the forests. 

The milling of cereals had not changed much, but 
the dairying industry has been profoundly modified by 
the development of the creamery system. It is a fine 
specimen of intelligent cooperation. The factory turns 
out a uniform product, secures a market for it, does the 
accounting, and settles with the farmer, relieving both 
him and his wife of a great deal of bother, and securing 
for the consumer a better article. It is because it 



FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO THE SPANISH WAR 259 

makes both the dairyman and the user of dairy products 
better off that this industry has had its rapid growth. 
The development of fast freight and express facihties 
has allowed the business to diversify, and the sending 
of milk, of pasteurized milk, and of cream daily to the 
cities has grown up. Condensed-milk factories take a 
portion of the product of the dairies ; while other farm 
products like corn and fruit find in some sections of the 
state a near-by market in the canning factories. 

In a similar way a great change has come over the 
industries which deal with the forest resources of the 
state. The manufacturing of sashes, doors, blinds, rough 
and dressed lumber has long been a standard occupation 
of our mills ; but the manufacture of paper from wood 
pulp has caused a tremendous growth of the pulp and 
paper business in the state since the Civil War. A 
large proportion of the spruce of New England now 
goes into wood pulp. Great plants with costly machin- 
ery are established, and an interest in practical forestry 
is aroused with a view to the permanence of the busi- 
ness ; for the great cost of such plants does not allow 
their abandonment in a few years, like an old-fashioned, 
inexpensive sawmill. Farsighted lumbermen, therefore, 
are attempting plans of systematic lumbering which will 
preserve their ranges as productive estates of increasing 
value, instead of leaving them, at the end of a few years, 
abandoned wildernesses. 

There is an increasing tendency in the lumber busi- 
ness, as in other enterprises, to do more finished work 
near the place where the raw material is furnished. 
This is partly because it is expensive to pay freights on 



26o HISTORY OF VERMONT 

waste which is to be taken off in dressing lumber, and 
partly because it is less expensive to run business in the 
country than in the city. Large concerns, therefore, 
engaged in the making of boxes, tubs, piano backs, 
piano sounding-boards, etc., have located in country 
towns as near as possible to their source of supply, 
either local or Canadian or both. Bobbin factories in 
many places have arisen to make use of the hard wood 
which in earlier days of lumbering was often left uncut 
in the forest on account of the greater expense of manu- 
facturing and marketing it. 

If you will look again at the list of leading industries, 
you will see that a series of them starts with the work 
which men have taken out of the hands of women. We 
are apt to think that woman is getting very modern and 
mannish in occupation, but is it not true that man has 
entered her field and left her much less of the old kind 
of work to do ? He invaded the kitchen and took the 
spinning wheel, the loom, and the dye pot. Presently 
he could be seen building a factory, and when it was 
done hosiery was made there by machinery. Th°en 
another factory went up, and there shirts, underclothes, 
and women's garments were triumphantly evolved. But 
the man had not finished : not only would he make his 
own shirts, but he would wash them also. So the 
modern steam laundry was installed, and presently the 
woman found her own dry goods going the way of 
the man's. The domestic laundry was invaded. 

But employment for women did not cease, for, although 
they may no longer do work in the old-fashioned way, 
they may do it with the most improved machinery. 



. FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO THE SPANISH WAR 261 

You will find establishments for making hosiery, knit 
goods, and women's apparel in the state for much the 
same reason that mills were located in the country ; 
girls can be hired for lower wages because they can 
live more cheaply, and in the country their work can be 
done under cleaner and more wholesome conditions than 
in the crowded shops of the city. Some of these shops 
are models of their kind. 

Turning once more to our list of industries, we find 
that the most important ones which remain for analysis 
rest upon the geological wealth of the state. Little iron 
is now locally produced. The three great geological 
industries are connected with the production of slate, 
marble, and granite. The slate industry, which has 
apparently changed but Httle in recent years, really illus- 
trates the development of modern conditions as well as 
the other two ; for this is true, that although the slate 
business is not on the increase, its present status depends 
as much on the foreign demand and market as upon 
home consumption, — a condition which could not have 
prevailed so very many years ago. Now exports of 
slate are made to South Africa, London, Bristol, and 
Newcastle. 

The marble business has grown for over a century, 
until Vermont has become the marble center of the 
world ; for not only does she produce the larger part of 
all that is produced in the United States, but she exports 
to the uttermost parts of the earth, — to India, China, 
Japan, and Australia. In 1898 Georgia and Tennessee 
produced more marble sold in the rough than Vermont 
did ; but this state furnished more art stone, nearly ten 



262 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

times as much monumental stone, and more than six 
times as much of both as all other states put together. 
Vermont, in fact, has supplied the need of the country 
for ornamental and building marble more largely than 
all other states combined. In recent years the sales 
of Vermont marble for building purposes have shown a 
notable increase. It is important that the coarser grades 
of stone can be thus used, since much of the product 
of a quarry would be wasted if only the monumental 
grades could be utilized, and some quarries could not be 
profitably worked at all on that basis. 

The expense of opening and working a marble quarry 
is so large that only a firm with a large capital can 
undertake it. Most of the marble used in the country 
is produced by a few great concerns. This might well 
be remembered by those who decry the concentration of 
capital, for one of the greatest industries of our state 
is made possible only by such concentration. The Ver- 
mont Marble Company, which was built up by Redfield 
Proctor, is the largest marble-producing company in the 
world. 

The increase in this business, therefore, is an increase 
not in the number of separate establishments but in 
their output, an increase amounting in the last decade 
to nearly fifty per cent. 

When we turn to the granite business we notice quite 
a different set of conditions. This business has had an 
even more rapid growth since the Civil War than the 
marble business; but while the marble industry is con- 
fined to a limited area, the granite industry is distributed 
throughout the state. There are quarries at East Dorset, 



FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO THE SPANISH WAR 263 

South Dorset, Rutland, Proctor, West Rutland, Bristol, 
Burlington, Pittsford, Brandon, Middlebury, Williams- 
town, Woodbury, Dummerston, Kirby, South Calais, 
Ricker's Mills, Beebe Plain,' Groton, to say nothing of 
the large beds practically untouched which will furnish 
an unlimited supply for years to come. Vermont has 
enough available granite to supply the world. 

This granite is of the best quality, fine grained, 
compact, strong, of very even texture and color, and is 
found in all shades of gray. No red granite is produced. 
Great wealth has come into the state from these hitherto 
barren ledges. The capital invested in conducting the 
business is widely distributed, and there are many com- 
panies engaged. Within comparatively few years Barre 
has grown from a little village into a granite city. The 
state is rapidly becoming the granite center of the world. 
In the production of finer kinds of monumental work 
Vermont already leads, producing more than twice the 
quantity yielded by any other state. Sales of cut gran- 
ite for building purposes are larger in some other states, 
although of this kind of stone Vermont sells more in the 
rough. Very little of her granite is used as paving 
stones. There are many surface quarries, and since the 
stone can be used from the start in the ledges, a small 
amount of capital is often sufficient to start a quarry. 

Education 

The educational work of the state has progressed, not 
with unbroken uniformity, but with commendable spirit 
and in the main with practical wisdom ; for Vermont has 



264 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

arrived at the underlying principle of an efficient public- 
school system, — state control. The cardinal points of 
the system are revealed in state requirements put upon 
the schools, in state aid furnished to the schools, and 
in the centralization of administrative machinery in the 
State Department of Education. 

These three features reach all the parties primarily 



The Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier 

connected with the schools ; that is, the towns which 
maintain the schools, the pupils who attend the schools, 
and the teachers who teach the schools. For example, 
in the matter of requirements : towns must maintain a 
school year of certain length in order to meet the require- 
ments of legal schools ; compulsory attendance is re- 
quired of the pupils ; and examination and certification 
is required of teachers. 



FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO THE SPANISH WAR 265 

In the same way the state aims to aid all connected 
with the public-school system. State funds are appor- 
tioned among the towns; it is directed that free text- 
books be supplied by the towns to the pupils ; and 
normal schools are maintained for the better training 
of teachers. 

The centralization of the system is illustrated by the 




The Norman Williams Library, Woodstock 



requirement that reports of all schools be returned to 
the Department of Education ; by the system of examina- 
tion and certification of teachers ; by the maintenance of 
the normal schools at Johnson, Castleton, and Randolph ; 
by the teachers' institutes and summer schools ; by 
circulars of information issued by the Department of 
Education ; and by the general supervision exercised 
by the State Superintendent of Education. The county 



266 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



examinations form a sort of bridge between the local 
and central systems. 

These features of our educational system have not all 
come at once. They are the result of an evolution. 
The normal schools began their work in 1866. The 
office of state superintendent was revived in 1874. 




Museum of Natural History, St. Johnsbury 

County examiners were provided for in 1 890. The town 
system was established in 1892. So little by little the 
advance has been made. The result is that to-day hardly 
a state in the Union can show a more generous support 
of its schools than this state, in proportion to wealth 
or population ; that no state can show better schools or 
school buildings or appliances than can be shown in 



FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO THE SPANISH WAR 267 

places of corresponding size in this state ; and that 
Vermont teachers are in demand in other states. 

The town system has done more to secure equaliza- 
tion of school privileges than any other one measure. 
The normal schools are doing progressive work. The 
spirit and zeal of the teachers of the state are shown 
by the support they give to institutes and educational 




The Mark Skinner Library, Manchester 



meetings. Popular feeling is indicated by the erection 
of better school buildings and the beautifying of school 
grounds. A few public kindergartens have been estab- 
lished and have met with favor. 

The high schools are a feature in the school develop- 
ment of the last quarter of a century. The position they 
hold was formerly held by a smaller number of institu- 
tions of academic or grammar grade, dependent partly 



268 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



on endowment but mostly on tuition, — such institutions, 
for example, as Burr and Burton Seminary, Vermont 
Academy at Saxtons River, Brattleboro Academy, St. 
Johnsbury Academy, Lyndon Institute, Brigham Acad- 
emy at Bakersfield, Montpelier Seminary, Newbury 
Seminary, and the academies at Derby, Craftsbury, 
Brownington, Thetford, Barre, Peacham, and elsewhere. 



V^4'^'*- 




if I 


^ 

•^ 


« 


&K. . i -A \Xm 


Wj^^ 


sAy, \, if 


3^ 


^^^^-"'W^^Kfm 




■ ^ 


1 


uff ""'fll^^^^^H 


w^^^&nm^^^Kk 


n 



The Billings Library, Burlington 

They did good work and some of them are yet strong 
institutions which fit well into the public-school system 
in their respective towns by filling the function of the 
high school which would otherwise be necessary. The 
schools at Castleton, Randolph, and Johnson became 
state normal schools in 1867. But the new institutions 
are high schools, not academies. High-school attendance 
has doubled in twenty years ; and recent legislation has 



FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO THE SPANISH WAR 269 

placed free secondary education within reach of the 
aspiring youth of the state. 

The growth of Hbraries and library facilities through- 
out the state is a most encouraging sign of the times. 
Many of the high schools have libraries, some possess- 
ing as many as four thousand volumes. The same is 




The Athen^um, St. Johnsbury 

true of the normal schools. Other libraries have been 
established by bequests of individuals, and have perma- 
nent endowments and artistic buildings. 

Of the colleges little need be said save that they have 
grown in their work, proving their worth, and that they 
have added to their buildings, equipment, courses of 
study, teaching staff, and number of students. 



2^o 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



The Spanish War 



,<^><^ 



National politics once 
more involved us in war ; 
but this time it was waged 
on foreign shores, not on 
our own, and was not so 
great a contest as to affect 
business and social condi- 
tions seriously. It would 
be a hazardous matter to 
pass judgment here on the 
merits of this war. It will 
be sufficient to call atten- 
tion to the fact that in the 
war two of Vermont's sons brought added distinction to 
themselves and to their state. To Commodore Dewey 
was due the credit of the victory of Manila Bay ; to 




Admiral George Dewey 




Birthplace of Admiral Dewey at Montpelier 



FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO THE SPANISH WAR 271 




Rear Admiral C. E. Clark's Birthplace, 
Bradford 



Captain Clark of 
the Oregon was due 
the credit of taking 
that wonderful 
mechanism, a mod- 
ern war-ship, on a 
voyage of more 
than half the cir- 
cumference of the 
globe, from the 
coast of California 

around Cape Horn, to join the Atlantic squadron, a feat 
which was accomplished in a little more than two months, 

without a rivet or a bolt 
or a gearing broken or 
out of place. 

Vermont statesmen 
have taken a leading and 
intelligent interest in try- 
ing to arrive at a broad 
and liberal solution of 
the vexed problems of 
administering our new 
possessions, and not a 
few of her sons have 
been called to take up 
active duty in the field 
of civil and educational 
service in the Philip- 
a missionary enterprise as any that 




Rear Admiral C. E. Clark 



pines in as truly 
exists to-dav. 



272 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

So here we leave the story of our state. More has 
been left unsaid than has been told ; but we have gained 
great glimpses here and there of audacious courage, 
sublime faith, magnificent statesmanship, true patriotism, 

and loyal devotion to duty. 

In the comparatively brief 

^^^ period of our state's history 

we have seen reflected the 

■* "- ,;. wide range of human life and 

" ' ^L, development from an exist- 

^■Bk mM ence the most simple and 

^^^Hj^^i^^B primitive to the civilization of 

^HH^^HBf the twentieth century. The 

^JJHIPPP^^ ^^^^ story and the greatest 

inspiration are the lives of 
Rowland E. Robinson x.he men and women them- 

Vermont's Blind Author , .1 1 • • 1 

selves, — the plam, simple 
people of the hills, whose characters stand out like 
great elemental forces as they moved through life, ever 
ready to take their chances with the hard things, ever 
responsive to the call of duty, strong, true, ardent, just, 
versatile, and independent. 




Geographical Map of Vermont 



APPENDIX 
Part I 

GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL NOTES 

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

VERMONT 

Latitude, north, 42^ 44' to 45°. 

Longitude, east from Washington, 3° 35' to 5° 29'. 

Length, 157^ miles. 

Width at northern border, 90 miles. 

Width at southern border, 41 miles. 

Average width, 57^ miles. 

Total area, 9565 square miles. 1 

Water surface, 430 square miles. 

Land area, 9135 square miles, or 5,846,400 acres. 

Mountains 

The surface of the state is thoroughly broken by hills, individual 
mountains, and mountain ranges. The configuration thus formed 
gives the state a diversified and picturesque scenery, which is 
enhanced by the beauty of the valleys and the numerous little 
streams, lakes, and ponds. The mountains of the state form 
four main divisions, which are known as the Green Mountains, 
the Taconic Mountains, the Granitic Mountains, and the Red 
Sandrock Mountains. 

1 Census 1900. The area of the state has been variously given by different 
authorities. 

273 



274 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



The Green Mountains form the principal mountain chain, and 
consist of a range which takes a northerly direction through the 
state for its entire length, a little to the west of the center. The 
highest peaks in the state belong to this range. Beginning at 
the north, the principal summits are as follows : 



Jay Peak, 4018 feet. 
Lowell Mountain. 
Sterling Peak, 3700 feet. 
Mt. Mansfield, 4364 feet. 
Bone Mountain. 
Camel's Hump, 4088 feet. 
Potato Hill, or Lincoln Moun- 
tain, 4078 feet. 
Bread Loaf. 
Moosalamoo. 
Hogback, 2347 feet.i 



Pico Peak, 3967 feet.i 
Killington Peak, 4241 feet.i 
Shrewsbury Peak, y]y] feet.i 
Saltash Mountain, 3278 feet.i 
White's Hill, 2922 feet.i 
Mt. Tabor, 3584 feet.i 
Stratton Mountain. 
Somerset Mountain, 3605 feet.i 
Haystack (Searsburg), 3462 feet.^ 
Bald Mountain (Woodford). 
Prospect Mountain. 



The Taconic Mountains are independent of the Green Mountain 
range and nearly parallel, in the southwestern part of the state, 
extending from the Massachusetts line as far north as Brandon. 
The principal summits are as follows : 



Bird Mountain. 

Herrick Mountain, 2692 feet. 

Moose Horn Mountain. 

Danby Mountain. 

Eolus. 

Master's Mountain. 

Haystack (Pawlet). 

Bear Mountain. 

Seymour Peak. 



Equinox, 3872 feet. 

Minister's Hill. 

Red Mountain. 

West Mountain. 

Bald Mountain (Arlington). 

Spruce Peak. 

Mt. Anthony, 2505 feet. 

Petersburg Mountain. 



The Granitic Mountains lie in eastern Vermont. They do 
not form a range, although they extend for nearly the length of 
the state, but are disconnected, separate uplifts. The ascent to the 



1 United States Geological Survey. This survey has not been completed for 
the entire state. Heights of mountains not thus marked may be taken to be only 
approximately correct. 



APPENDIX 



275 



summit is not infrequently steeper on the southern than on the 
northern side. The most important elevations are the following : 



Granite Hill. 
Mt. John. 
Bear Hill. 
Bluff Mountain. 
Mt. Pisgah. 
Mt. Hor. 



Mt. Seneca. 
Joe's Hill. 
Mack's Mountain. 
Pidgeon Hill. 
Pine Mountain. 
Knox Mountain. 



Cobble Hill. 
Millstone Hill. 
Ascutney, 3320 feet. 
Black Mountain. 



The Red Sandrock group is a series of uplifts in northwestern 
Vermont, lying in Addison, Chittenden, and FrankHn counties. 
They are characterized by a gradual slope on the eastern side, 
and a more rugged and bold escarpment on the western. The 
formation is usually limestone or calcareous slate, capped with 
siliceous rock, " red sand rock," from which the mountains take 
their name. These elevations are : 



Snake Mountain. 
Buck Mountain. 
Bridgeman's Hill. 
Rice Hill, 2947 feet.i 
Prospect Hill. 
Snake Hill. 
Cobble Hill (Milton). 



Mutton Hill. 

Pease Hill. 

Sugar Loaf, or Mt. Philo. 

Florona, 1035 i^^^- 

Shell House Mountain. 

Mars Hill. 



Rivers 



The situation of the mountains determines, of course, the water- 
sheds and the course of the streams. Since the principal watershed 
coincides with the range of the Green Mountains, the rivers on the 
eastern side of the state empty into the Connecticut River, after 
taking for the most part an easterly or southeasterly course from 
their sources among the hills. The Passumpsic and the Deerfield 
flow south. These rivers are, beginning at the north : 

Nulhegan. Ompompanoosuc. Williams. 

Passumpsic. White. West. 

Waits. Quechee. Deerfield. 

Wells. Black. 

1 United States Geological Survey. This survey has not been completed for 
the entire state. Heights of mountains not thus marked may be taken to be only 
approximately correct. 



276 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

In the northern part of the state, in what is often known as 
" the Y of the Green Mountains," but really in the basin between 
the Granitic and the Green mountains, a smaller group of rivers 
rises and flows northward into Lake Memphremagog. These are 
the Clyde, the Barton, and the Black. 

On the western side of the state, tributary to Lake Champlain, 
there is a smaller number of rivers larger than those on the east- 
ern side, these being the Missisquoi, the Lamoille, the Winooski, 
the Otter Creek, the Poultney, and the Pawlet. The Battenkill 
and the Hoosac empty into the Hudson. 

Lakes and Ponds 

Although the Fish Commissioners' reports contain a list of the 
many lakes and ponds in the state, and the kinds of fish which 
they contain, there are no accurate data on the acreage of these 
waters. The following figures are approximately correct for the 
most important bodies : 

Acres Acres 
Berlin Pond, Berlin, 650 Joe's Pond, Cabot and Dan- 
Big Leach, or Wallace Pond, ville, 1000 

Canaan, 1200 Lake Bomoseen, Castleton, 15000 

Caspian Lake, Greensboro, 1200 Lake Dunmore, Salisbury 

Colchester Pond, Colchester, 800 and Leicester, 3000 

Crystal Lake, Barton, 1400 Lake St. Catherine, Wells 

Echo Pond, Charleston, 800 and Poultney, 2000 

Fairfield Pond, Fail-field, 1500 Little Averill Pond, Averill, 800 

Fairlee Lake, Fairlee and Maidstone Lake, Maidstone, 1000 

Thetford, 1500 May Pond, Barton, 1000 

Franklin Pond, Franklin, 1800 Memphremagog, Derby and 

Great Averill Pond, Averill, 1200 Newport, (in Vermont) 8000 

Great Hosmer Pond, Albany, 1000 Morey Lake, Fairlee, 1300 

Groton Pond, Groton, 1800 Salem Pond, Derby, 1000 

Hosmer Pond, Craftsbury, 650 Seymour Lake, Morgan, 5000 

Island Pond, Brighton, 1500 Shelburne Pond, Shelburne, 700 

Willoughby Lake, Westmore, 5500 



APPENDIX 



2TJ 



Counties 

Previous to the declaration of independence by the state in 1777, 
the territory of the New Hampshire Grants lay within the limits 
of four counties : Cumberland, Gloucester, Charlotte, and Albany. 
The boundaries of these counties are shown on page 74, 

Cumberland County lay east of the Green Mountains and 
extended from the southern boundary of the state as far north as 
the southern part of the present county of Orange. This county 
was established by the Colonial Legislature of New York in 1766. 
The act was annulled by royal decree in 1767, but was renewed 
in the following year, and the county was incorporated in March, 
1768. The first shire town was Chester, but the county seat was 
removed to Westminster in 1772. 

Gloucester County, which was formed in 1770, with Newbury 
as shire town, comprised all of the grants north of Cumberland 
County and east of the mountains. 

Charlotte County included a portion of New York and the part 
of the grants which lay west of the Green Mountains and north of 
the towns of Arlington and Sunderland. The county was formed 
in 1772, with its shire at Skenesboro, now Whitehall. 

Albany County comprised the remainder of the state west of 
the Green Mountains and south of Charlotte County, as well as 
part of New York. 

The present counties of the state were organized as follows : 



Bennington, 


1779 


Chittenden, 


1782 


Orleans, 


1792 


Windham, 


1779 


Addison, 


1787 


Grand Isle, 


1802 


Rutland, 


1781 


Franklin, 


1792 


Washington, 


1810 


Windsor, 


1781 


Caledonia, 


1792 


Lamoille, 


1835 


Orange, 


1781 


Essex, 


1792 







2"]^ HISTORY OF VERMONT 



GEOLOGICAL NOTES i 

Vermont has, in proportion to her population, greater wealth in 
quarries than any other state. As a mining state, however, she 
never has been important and never can be ; for although she 
possesses a diversity of metals, they do not exist under such con- 
ditions that they can be profitably obtained in any appreciable 
quantities. For instance, gold has been found in many places in 
the state, but nowhere in paying quantities. It occurs in both 
the sands of streams and in gold-bearing rocks. But not every 
quartz vein is gold bearing, and if gold-bearing quartz is found it 
still remains to get the rock out of the ground and the gold out of 
the rock. The process of separating gold from quartz is complex 
and involves the use of expensive machinery, so that it costs 
more to get the metal than it is worth. 

The only mining which has been extensively carried on to any 
profit is copper mining. In a few localities this has probably 
paid. Copper has been mined to some extent for over eighty 
years, although there have been intervals of inactivity. There is 
no native copper in the state, that is, copper in a pure form, such 
as exists in the great beds of the Lake Superior copper region ; 
but it occurs as chalcopyrite or copper pyrites, a sulphide of cop- 
per, which is usually largely mixed with iron sulphide. Within 
the last few years there has been an increased demand for copper 
owing to its use in electrical equipments ; and owing to this 
and a corresponding increase in price some renewed interest has 
been shown in the copper mines of Vermont, and copper is again 
mined at the old Ely mine in Vershire, the Elizabeth mine in 
South Strafford, the Reynolds mine in Strafford, and the mine of 
the Vermont and Boston Mining Company in Berkshire. 

Lead is found in many parts of the state, and although a few 
attempts have been made to work lead mines, the quantity has 
been insufficient to develop them. In 1880, according to the 
Census Report, this state produced two hundred and fifty tons of 

1 Taken from the Report of the State Geologist, G. H. Perkins, for 1900, and 
from the Fourteenth Agricultural Report. 



APPENDIX 279 

metallic iron. Little has been produced since, and no beds are 
now worked, although many towns possess deposits of iron asso- 
ciated with ocher, kaolin, clays, etc. Bog manganese is found 
here and there over the state. S capstone, freestone, asbestos, 
talc, and paint have been found in sufficient quantities to tempt 
experiments at working them. One bed of kaolin, worked at 
Monkton, has been used in the manufacture of china ware and 
fire clay. The Rutland Fire Clay Company digs clay to use in 
stove linings. The principal beds of ocher are at Brandon, 
Shaftsbury, and Bennington. There are quarries of quartzite 
which have been worked by the Pike Manufacturing Company 
of Brownington for scythestones. 

The first quarries to be opened were naturally those in which 
building material was sought. But the construction of stone 
buildings involves the use of mortar, and as this is obtained from 
limestone it follows that the latter must have been quarried early. 
Nearly all the limestone in this state is found in the western part, 
not far from Lake Champlain. For more than a century stone 
has been taken out at the southern end of Isle La Motte, an almost 
black limestone with few fossils. At Grand Isle two quarries 
have been worked, mostly for railroad construction. Quarries 
at Highgate and Swanton have been worked since the early part 
of the nineteenth century, furnishing the stone for extensive kilns 
from which lime is made. It has also been obtained at Col- 
chester, Brandon, Leicester Junction, and elsewhere. East of this 
narrow strip of limestone the rocks are mostly schist, granite, 
gneiss, quartzite, and other metamorphic rocks. 

The especially important quarries are those of slate, marble, 
and granite. The location of the first two industries is very 
interesting. They are both situated in a long, narrow area, one 
east and the other west of the Taconic range. By far the larger 
part of both kinds of quarries is in Rutland County. The 
Taconic hills are a complete barrier between them. No marble is 
found west of the hills, no slate east. The marble belt reaches 
farther north than the slate belt, but the southern limit is about 
the same. The marble area is about twice as iong from north to 
south as the slate area, and is somewhat wider from east to west. 



28o HISTORY OF VERMONT 

The great slate belt begins on the north, near Glen Lake at 
West Castleton, and extends southward on each side of Lake 
Bomoseen, through Scotch Hill, New Haven, Blissville, Poultney, 
South Poultney, Wells, Pawlet, and West Pawlet, south of which 
no quarries are now worked, although they formerly extended as 
far as West Rupert. From north to south this slate region is 
about thirty miles in length ; it is from five to six miles wide for 
the most part, and nowhere more than eight or ten miles in width. 
A number of different varieties of slate are produced, — unfading 
green, sea green, purple, variegated, and dark gray. There have 
been about one hundred and fifty quarries either temporarily or 
permanently worked in this area. 

Especial mention has been made of both the marble and the 
granite industries in the closing chapter of the history, so that 
little further need be said here, save to note that the distribution 
of the granite is not so confined as that of the slate and marble, it 
occurring widely on the eastern side of the Green Mountains. 



Part II 

FOR REFERENCE AND FURTHER STUDY 

MAP EXERCISES 

Draw an outline of the state. Indicate the name of the adja- 
cent territory. Show on the map the latitude and longitude of 
Vermont. State in miles the length of Vermont and the approxi- 
mate width at the northern and southern boundaries. Indicate 
the area in square miles and the acreage, both land and water. 

On an outline map such as the above show the course of the 
Green Mountain range and the situation of the Taconic, Granitic, 
and Red Sandrock mountains. Indicate the heights of the prin- 
cipal peaks. 

On an outline map of the state insert the courses of the princi- 
pal water ways tributary to the Connecticut River, the Hudson 



APPENDIX 281 

River, Lake Memphremagog, and Lake Champlain. In drawing 
these rivers be careful to locate their sources properly, to show 
the territory which they drain, and their exits into the larger 
bodies of water. Tell where these larger bodies empty into the 
sea. Draw on this map the lakes of Vermont. 

Sketch the county divisions on an outline map of the state. 
Indicate the names of the counties, the dates of organization, 
and the population. Show where the earliest settlements were 
made, with dates. Locate the cities and large towns. Draw the 
railroad lines which lie within the state. 

Compare Vermont with the other New England states in 
respect to size and population. Compare it also with any three 
of the Middle, Southern, and Western states. Compare it with 
England, France, Switzerland, Italy. 

Note. — These are foundation exercises, and, if necessary, should be repeated 
until good work can be shown. The maps should be drawn in class, from mem- 
ory, should be carefully scrutinized by the teacher, and returned with whatever 
comment or criticism is needed. Oral questions should supplement the exercises. 
The following list of maps will be found useful for reference. 

List of Maps 

I. Vermont at the close of the French and Indian wars,l facing p. 40. 
II. Early Map of New Hampshire, soon after the erection of Fort Dum- 
mer, p. 69. 

III. The First Political Division of Vermont, p. 74. 

IV. Vermont at the close of the Revolution,2 facing p. 122. 
V. Railroad Map of Vermont, facing p. 220. 

VI. Geographical Map of Vermont, facing p. 2"]-^. 
VII. Township Map of Vermont, in colors, facing p. 301. 

^ This map shows French occupancy in the Champlain Valley ; two of the old Indian 
routes ; Governor Wentworth's early grants ; the beginning of English settlement ; the 
military outposts at Crown Point, Ticonderoga, Fort William Henry, Number Four, 
Fort Dummer, and Fort Hoosac; the first road across the state; and the extent to 
which the wilderness had been explored. The original of this map bears no date, but 
internal evidence would indicate that it was made between 1759 ^"^ 1764- 

2 This map shows the extent to which townships had been granted before the close 
of the Revolution. A comparison with map I will indicate the very rapid develop- 
ment of the state following the close of the French and Indian wars. The town- 
ships marked Y were granted by governors of New York. The dotted lines indicate 
conflicting grants. 



282 HISTORY OF VERMONT 



TOPICS 1 

Chapter I. Did Cartier see a part of Vermont? Distinguish 
between the possibiHty, the probability, and the certainty of it. 
The first contact of Indians and white men. Champlain's route 
to the lake. Champlain's impressions of the country : what would 
be his standard of comparison ? The fauna of Vermont in 1609. 
Could the Indians be depended on for accurate accounts of the 
country.? Modern weapons and Indian warfare. What reason 
is there to think that Champlain mistook limestone rocks for snow 
on the mountains? Distinguish what we positively know about 
the aborigines of Vermont from what we can reasonably infer. 
Describe the old burial ground at Swanton, and give the evidence 
of its antiquity. Indian relics and their uses. Describe Indian 
life from data given in this chapter. 

Chapter II. Compare the French and English methods of 
colonizing, and mention some of the results. The French and 
Indian wars as an incident of colonial policy. Condition of our 
state at the time of these wars. How much of its geography was 
known? Describe the red men's roads. Illustrate the methods 
of warfare by the Deerfield raid and Rogers's exploit. Describe 
the building of Fort Dummer and the life of the scouts. How the 
French entered the Champlain Valley. When did it become evi- 
dent that the French were losing ground ? Find the reason for 
the failure of the French. The work and value of scouting parties. 

Chapter III. Enumerate the indirect or secondary results of 
the French and Indian wars. Give the history of the old Indian 
road. The Hazen road. Local road building. Why is 1760 
an important date in Vermont history? Bennington. Illustrate 
the choice of locations for settlement and how the first settlers 
came into the wilderness. What parts of the state were settled 
first and why? The extent of settlement at the time of the Revo- 
lution. Colonial society in its social, industrial, and intellectual 
aspects. Domestic economy. PoHtical issues. 

1 The topics are not designed to supply the teachers with a complete Ust 
of ready-made questions, but to indicate the lines along which they may most 
profitably direct their own questions. 



APPENDIX 283 

Chapter IV. Why were the early townships called the New 
Hampshire Grants ? The cause of the dispute between New 
Hampshire and New York. To whom did all parties turn for 
appeal? How the question affected the settlers of this state. 
Hov/ the New Hampshire Grants passed under the jurisdiction of 
New York. What change of jurisdiction meant. Why the Order 
in Council of 1 764 did not settle the trouble. Trace the steps in 
the contest. The settlers' methods of defense : their first appeal ; 
their next resort ; their final alternative. Were their methods of 
operation legal? Did the governors of New York act legally? 
What did the settlers' methods do for them in the way of building 
up a government? If the king had not issued the first Order in 
Council is it likely that Vermont would have been a separate state? 
Were there men in Vermont who had settled in good faith under 
New York patents ? Could this dispute have been settled by 
compromise ? Describe the situation leading to the " Westmin- 
ster Massacre." Is. it an incident of the Revolution or of the 
grant controversy, or both ? Was it really a massacre ? Were 
the settlers acting legally ? 

Chapter V. The relation of the grant controversy to the 
Revolution, The strategic importance of the Champlain Valley. 
How the British came to be in possession of the military posts. 
Colonial projects for securing possession of the Champlain Valley. 
The relation of the capture of Ticonderoga to the Revolution. 
The importance of the event as a military operation. The Green 
Mountain Boys in the war. Naval operations of 1776. The 
British plan of campaign for 1777. Events leading to the battle 
of Bennington. What caused Burgoyne's defeat? In what did 
the value of John Stark's services lie ? The respects in which 
Bennington was an important battle. In what ways was it simi- 
lar to the engagements at Lexington and Bunker Hill and unlike 
the others of the Revolution ? The general effect of the war on 
frontier settlements. Illustrate. What should make the British 
think that the New Hampshire Grants would be loyal to the 
crown ? 

Chapter VI. What did the Revolution do for Vermont ? How 
did it create an opportunity for more independent action than the 



284 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

state could otherwise have taken ? Why did Vermont become a 
state? What was the difference between Vermont and any one 
of the thirteen colonies? How did the conventions described in 
this chapter arise, and of whom were they composed ? In what 
respects did the second differ from the first, the third from the 
second, and so on ? Why were the conventions held at different 
places? Distinguish the different kinds of questions which came 
before the conventions. Name some of the burdens which Ver- 
mont assumed on becoming a state. The relation between the 
American Declaration of Independence and Vermont's. 

Chapter VII. The conditions in Vermont compared with those 
in other states during the Revolutionary period and immediately 
following. Name the ways in which war affects the finances 
and industries of states. Compare Vermont's participation in the 
Revolution with that of other states. What made her continued 
growth through the Revolutionary period possible ? Explain the 
origin of "ministers' lots," "school lots," etc. The location, the 
causes, and the extent of popular disturbances after the war. 
Legislative measures to relieve poor debtors. Vermont's case 
before Congress. History of the East and West unions. The 
negotiations with the British. What saved Vermont from inva- 
sion ? Cite the opinions of leading men showing different points 
of view of the Vermont problem. Explain why Vermont was 
not admitted to the Union for fourteen years. Explain why she 
was admitted in 179 1. In what ways can you indicate Governor 
Chittenden's skill and statesmanship ? 

Chapter VIII. Transportation as a factor in industrial devel- 
opment. What things were raised on the farms and where were 
they marketed ? The first artisans in newly settled places. What 
things were made at home which we now buy ? Give a descrip- 
tion of the occupation and life of the people at the end of the 
eighteenth century. The beginning of quarrying, the lumber 
trade, steam navigation. Educational work of the early Ver- 
monters. Banks, paper money, and coinage. Lotteries and how 
they were used. Differences between the northern and southern 
parts of the state. The claim of the Caughnawaga Indians and 
how it was disposed of. 



APPENDIX 285 

Chapter IX. How did Vermont happen to take an active 
interest in the War of 181 2 ? The effect of this war on the settle- 
ments. The principal naval events on Lake Champlain. Describe 
the war policy as revealed in the embargoes. How did it work? 
Arguments for and against such a policy. Why did New Eng- 
land not sympathize with such a policy.'* Trace the results in 
the general respect paid to law and in the course of trade. Did 
Vermont display loyalty to the government and good citizenship 
among her people ? 

Chapter X. What were the differences between rural life 
in Vermont half a century ago and to-day ? The neighborhood 
as a center of industry and social Hfe. Discuss the application of 
labor, transportation, and markets as factors of change in the 
forms of industry. The growth of manufacturing before the Civil 
War, with illustrations of important developments. The work 
of the state on its educational system before the Civil War. In 
what respects was Vermont a pioneer in educational progress ? 
How the growth of negro slavery became the dominant issue in 
national politics. 

Chapter XI. Vermont's record on the slavery question. The 
situation of the North on the verge of war. The apprehensions 
of public men in Vermont on the impending crisis. The outbreak 
of the war. Activities throughout the state. Illustrate the pri- 
vate, public, and official feeling on the issue. The raising of 
troops in the state. A summary of the services of Vermont. 
Some of the important campaigns in which the First Vermont 
Brigade served. Opinions of officers on the quality of our sol- 
diers. The St. Albans Raid. 

Chapter XII. Trace the effects of war on industry and agri- 
cultural conditions during the continuance of the contest. The 
reaction after the war was over. The westward movement of 
population. The main features of our industrial development 
since the Civil War. Illustrate the manner in which new indus- 
tries arise and diversify. The gains made in our educational 
system. An outline of the present system. Vermont's repre- 
sentatives in the Spanish War and the importance of the part 
they played. 



286 HISTORY OF VERMONT 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

Bibliography and General Works 

The most complete bibliography is that published in the Argus 
and Pat7'iot, by M. D. Oilman, and later in one volume (Burling- 
ton, 1897). The most detailed and valuable histories of the state 
were pubHshed comparatively early. Among the best are : 

Samuel Williams. Natural and Civil History of Vermont. Wal- 
pole, N.H., 1794. 2d ed., enlarged and corrected. Burlington, Vt., 
1809. 2 vols. 

Zadock Thompson. History of Vermont, Natural, Civil, and Sta- 
tistical. In three parts. Burlington, 1848. Contains the Gazetteer. 

Benjamin Homer Hall. The History of Eastern Vermont to the 
Close of the Eighteenth Century. New York, 1858. Albany, 1865. 
An original work, involving much research and incorporating new 
material. "Written from manuscripts in the offices of the secretaries 
of state of Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and 
Connecticut. Quite full on the history of the controversy over the 
grants, and containing much detailed local history. 

HiLAND Hall. History of Vermont from its Discovery to its Admis- 
sion into the Union in 1791. Albany, 1868. Written from original 
documents and personal investigation. 

In addition to the above there are a few works which deserve 
mention for special reasons. Such are : 

Ira Allen. Natural and Political History of the State of Vermont. 
London, 1798. Reprinted in Vermont Historical Society Collections, 
I, Montpelier, Vt., 1870. This book has the disadvantage of being 
written by a partisan, from memory, without the possibility of verifying 
any doubtful statements. It is, therefore, somewhat prejudiced, uncrit- 
ical, and inaccurate. But it has the advantage of being the only account 
we possess of the Haldimand negotiations from an insider, and is there- 
fore a contribution which cannot be disregarded. It covers the period 
from 1764 to 1 791. 

A. M. Hemenway (editor). The Vermont Historical Gazetteer. 
Five vols. Burlington, 1867-1891. This is sometimes cited as the 



APPENDIX 287 

Vermont Historical Magazine. It is made up of the contributions of 
local writers, and is therefore not of uniform value. It contains masses 
of information not elsewhere available, and tells much about the life of 
the people as well as of the separate towns. 

Rowland E. Robinson. Vermont. Boston, 1892. The best of the 
more recent single-volume histories of moderate compass. It combines 
faithful and painstaking effort for accuracy with good literary workman- 
ship. A good book for the general reader to own. 

Records of the Council of Safety and Governor and Coun- 
cil OF Vermont. 8 vols. Montpelier, 1873-1880. This is the most 
important series, as well as the most comprehensive, on the history 
of the state. Invaluable for any original study. 

William Slade. Vermont State Papers. Middlebury, 1823. A 
compilation of records and documents, with the Journal of the Council 
of Safety, the first constitution, and the early journals of the General 
Assembly. Very valuable for reference. 

Vermont Historical Society. Collections, 2 vols., 1870, 187 1. 
Proceedings, i vol., 1898. Separate printed reports of proceedings, 
papers read, etc., of various dates. Chiefly occupied with the history 
of the state during the Revolution and immediately afterward, and 
with the history of the controversy with New York. 

Archaeology 

George H. Perkins. Some Relics of the Indians of Vermont 
{American Naturalist, March, 187 1). On Some Fragments of Pottery 
from Vermont (Proceedings of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, August, 1876). On an Ancient Burial Ground in 
Swanton, Vermont (Proceedings of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, 1873). The Calumet in the Champlain 
Valley {Popular Science Monthly, Vol. XLV, 1894). The Stone Axe 
in Vermont: I, Celts; II, Notched and Grooved Axes {American 
Naturalist, December, 1885; June, 1886). Archaeological Researches 
in the Champlain Valley (Memoirs of the International Congress of 
Anthropology). Archaeology of Vermont {American Naturalist, June, 
1 881). Archceology of New England {Prehistoric Implements, Moore- 
head, Section IV, 1900). 

David S. Kellogg. Early Mention of Events and Places in the 
Valley of Lake Champlain (published in Vermont Historical Society 
Proceedings, 1902), 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



Discoveries and Early History 

Samuel de Champlain. Works. Translated in Slafter's Champlain. 
(Prince Society Publications. Portions are translated in O'Callaghan, 
Documentary History of New York, III.) 

Pierre E. Radisson. Voyages. (Prince Society Publications, 1885.) 

New Hampshire Historical Society Collections, V, 207-211. 
Journal of Eleazer Melvin with eighteen men under his command, in 
the wilderness toward Crown Point, 1 748. 

O'Callaghan. Documentary History of New York, IV, 257 ff. 
Journals of Sir William Johnson's scouts from Lake George to Crown 
Point, Ticonderoga, and other points, in 1755 and 1756. Also Docu- 
ments relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York. 
15 vols. Albany, 1856-1887. 

Robert Rogers. Journals of Major Robert Rogers. London, 1765.' 
These cover his scouting in the Champlain Valley as well as the history- 
of his famous raid against the St. Francis Indians. 

Major General John Stark. Memoir and Official Correspondence. 
(Ed. Caleb Stark.) Concord, i860. 

Francis Parkman. Champlain and His Associates (Pioneers of 
France in the New World), Chapters I, IX, X. A Half-Century of 
Conflict, Chapters I, III, V, XI, XVII, XXIII, XXIV. Montcalm 
and Wolfe, Introduction and Chapters I, XX, XXVI. 

E. HoYT. Antiquarian Researches : Comprising a History of the 
Indian Wars in the Country bordering on the Connecticut River, to 
1760. Greenfield, Mass., 1824. 

J. A. Graham. Descriptive Sketch of Vermont. London, 1797. 



' Geology and Geography 

Albert Hagar. Report on the Economical Geology, Physical 
Geography, and Scenery of Vermont. 1861. 

George H. Perkins. Report of the State Geologist on the Mineral 
Resources of Vermont. 1 899-1 900. 



In addition to works mentioned above, attention is called to 
town histories, some of which, like Wells's " History of Newbury," 
have brought new material to light ; to county histories, some of 
which, as Smith and Rann's " History of Rutland County," are 



APPENDIX ' 289 

excellent and contain much information about early roads, settle- 
ments, and the state of society ; to pamphlets published by various 
local historical societies ; to the Vermont Agricultural Reports, 
the fourteenth number of which is especially interesting ; to the 
Census Reports for the data which they furnish on the manu- 
factures and industries of the state ; to biographical sketches, 
especially those in J. G. Ullery's "Men of Vermont"; to the 
many articles and illustrations bearing on the history of the state 
which have appeared from time to time in The Verinotiter ; to 
the last report of the Superintendent of Education ; and to the 
literary efforts of Vermont writers, — notably D. P. Thompson's 
" The Green Mountain Boys " and " The Rangers," the poems 
of John G. Saxe and Julia Dorr, and Rowland E. Robinson's 
" A Hero of Ticonderoga," " A Danvis Pioneer," " Uncle Lisha's 
Shop," and "Sam Lovell's Camps." 

The author acknowledges a special indebtedness to G. G. Bene- 
dict's " Vermont in the Civil War." The material for Chapter XI 
was taken almost exclusively from this work. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 

1607 The English land at Jamestown. 

1608 Samuel de Champlain founds the city of Quebec. 

1609 On July 4 Champlain enters the lake which bears his name. 
Henry Hudson explores the Hudson River. 

1613 The Dutch establish a trading post at Manhattan. 

1 6 14 John Smith explores the New England coast. 

1 6 19 A cargo of slaves is landed in Virginia. 

1620 The Pilgrims land at Plymouth. 

1623 New Amsterdam is settled by the Dutch. 
Albany is settled. 

1629 New Hampshire is granted to Mason. 

1630 Boston is founded. 
1636 Springfield is settled. 

1639 First printing press in America is set up at Cambridge. 
1650 New York's eastern boundary provisionally settled. 



290 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

1654 Northampton settled. 

1664 The English conquer New Netherlands. 

1665 The French build a fort on Isle La Motte. 
1670 Deerfield settled. 

1690 Settlement in Vermont. 

Raid on Schenectady. 

The English build a Fort at Chimney Point. 

First English Expedition through Lake Champlain. 
1702 Queen Anne's War begins. 
1704 The Raid on Deerfield. 

1 7 14 Northfield settled. 

1715 The "equivalent lands" granted by Massachusetts to 

Connecticut. 
1 71 9 Weekly newspapers established in Boston and Philadelphia. 
1724 Fort Dummer is built in Vermont by Massachusetts. 

1730 The French settle at Chimney Point. 

1731 Fort Frederick (Crown Point) built by the French. 

1732 George Washington born. 

1736 Township No. i (Westminster) granted by Massachusetts. 

1739 Grant of Walloomsac. 

1740 Southern boundary of New Hampshire fixed, involving that 

of Vermont. 

1 74 1 Benning Wentworth appointed governor of New Hampshire. 

1 744 King George's War with France. 

Fort Massachusetts built at Williamstown. 

1745 French and Indian raid on Saratoga. 

1749 Bennington granted by Governor Wentworth. 

1750 Protest of Governor Clinton of New York. 
The boundary question submitted to the king. 

1753 Settlement of Bellows Falls. 

1754 French and Indian War begun. 

1755 The English build Fort WiUiam Henry at the foot of 

Lake George. 

1758 The English try to drive the French from Lake Champlain. 

1759 The English take Ticonderoga and Crown Point. 
Wolfe captures the city of Quebec. 

Rogers destroys the Indian village of St. Francis. 



APPENDIX 291 

1760 Montreal taken by the English. 

1760-63 Governor Wentworth makes many grants. 

1 76 1 Bennington settled. Settlers begin to come in rapidly. 

1762 Newbury settled. 

1763 Peace between England and France. Southern boundary 

of Canada fixed at 45° north latitude. 

1764 Order in Council decides the Connecticut River to be the 

eastern boundary of New York. 
Windsor, Manchester, and Guildhall settled. 

1 765 New York patents begin to be issued for Vermont lands. 
The Stamp Act goes into effect. 

Convention of setders west of the mountains. 

1 766 Another convention west of the mountains ; the settlers send 

Samuel Robinson to England as agent. 
The Stamp Act repealed. 
Middlebury settled. Vergennes setded. 
Cumberland County formed. 

1 767 Order in Council forbids New York authorities to make 

further grants of disputed lands. 

1 769 The king's order not observed. 

1770 Ejectment suits decided at Albany against the settlers. 

Ethan Allen appears for the defense. 
Rutland settled. 
Gloucester County formed, north of Cumberland. 

1 77 1 The raid on Breakenridge's farm. 
Organization of the Green Mountain Boys. 

Rewards offered for the arrest of Ethan Allen and other 
leaders. 

1772 Remember Baker captured by Justice Munro, but rescued 

by neighbors. 
Settlers hold five meetings of " Committees of Safety." 
Charlotte County formed, lying on both sides of Lake 

Cliamplain. 

1773 Burlington settled. 

1774 Congress of delegates at Philadelphia. 
Committees of Safety meet in March and April. 
St. Albans settled. 



292 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

1775 March 13. The Westminster Massacre. 

April II. Committee of Safety meets at Westminster. 

April 19. Battle of Lexington. 

-, r Capture of Ticonderoija. 

May 10. ^ ^ ^ . , ^ ^ 

(^ Continental Congress assembles. 

Committees of Safety form throughout the colonies. 

Green Mountain Boys form a regiment. 

Invasion of Canada. 

Ethan Allen captured and sent to England. 

1776 Retreat from Canada. Carleton's expedition down the lake. 
June 21. Convention at Westminster. 

July 4. United States declare their independence. 
July 24. Convention at Dorset. 
Sept. 25. Convention at Dorset. 
Oct. 30. Convention at Westminster. 

1777 Jan. 15. Convention at Westminster. Vermont declares 

her independence. 
June 4. Convention at Windsor. 

July 2. Convention at Windsor. Constitution adopted. 
July 7. Battle of Hubbardton. Burgoyne's invasion. 
Aug. 16. Battle of Bennington. 
Oct. 17. Burgoyne surrenders. 
Dec. 24. Constitutional Convention. 

1778 Vermonters build frontier forts. British raid the farms by 

the lake. 
Thomas Chittenden elected governor. 
Legislature meets at Windsor. 
Tory lands confiscated. 

Union of western New Hampshire towns with Vermont, 
First newspaper in Vermont published at Westminster. 

1779 Code of laws adopted. 

New Hampshire and Massachusetts assert claims to Ver- 
mont territory. 

Congress appoints a committee to consider the boundary 
dispute. 

1780 Raid of British and Indians on Royalton. 
The British appear again on the lake. 



APPENDIX 293 

1 78 1 East and West unions formed. 

Intrigue with the British (Haldimand negotiations). 
British letters sent to Congress by Ethan Allen and 
Benjamin Franklin. 

1782 George Washington advises Vermont to give up the 

annexed towns. 
The legislature relinquishes the unions. 
" Windham County Rebellion." Offenders banished. 

1 783 Peace with Great Britain. 

1784 Vermont ceases to press her suit for admission to the 

Union. 
State Post Office established. 
Ludlow settled. 

1785 State coinage. Mint at Rupert. 

1786 Revision of the state constitution. Montpelier settled. 
St. Johnsbury settled. 

1787 Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia. 

1788 Northern states want Vermont admitted to offset Southern 

influence. 
Kentucky applies for admission. 

1790 Agreement ratified between Vermont and New York. 
Vermont appropriates $30,000 to pay New York's claims. 

1 79 1 Vermont becomes a state of the Union, March 4. 
1793 Newport settled. 

1800 University of Vermont opened. 
Middlebury College founded. 

1 80 1 Thomas Jefferson, President. 
1804 Jefferson reelected. 

1806 State banks established at Woodstock and Middlebury. 

1807 State prison at Windsor authorized. 

1808 Montpelier becomes the state capital. 
Smuggling on Lake Champlain due to land embargo. 
Steam transportation begun. 

Madison elected President. 

18 10 State banks fail. 

181 1 Private banks chartered. 

181 2 Madison reelected. 



294 HISTORY OF VERMONT 

1812 War with Great Britain. 
The state levies a war tax. 

18 13 Federahst party elects Martin Chittenden as governor. 
Naval operations on Lake Champlain. 

1 814 Sept. II. Battles at Plattsburg and Plattsburg Bay. 

181 5 Peace declared. 

1 81 6 The " cold season." Monroe elected President. 

181 7 President Monroe visits Vermont. 
1820 Monroe reelected. 

1822 Lake Champlain Canal opened. 

State Medical School founded. 
1825 Lafayette visits Vermont and lays the corner stone of the 
new university building at Burlington. 

Erie Canal opened. 

Board of Canal Commissioners appointed for Vermont. 

1827 General school act passed. 

1828 WiUiam Lloyd Garrison comes to Bennington. 
New tariff stimulates wool growing. 

1830 First railroad opened in America. 

Anti-Masonic agitation in Vermont becomes poHtical. 

1833 United States deposits withdrawn from branch bank at 

Burlington, causing distress. 
Temperance movement results in incipient legislation. 

1834 Slavery question prominent. 

1837 Great panic. Specie payments suspended. Wheat crop 

fails. 
1839 Legislative protests against slavery in the District of 

Columbia. 
1841-42 Cold winter and terrible epidemic. 
1843 Appropriations made for agricultural societies. 

Warrants for apprehending fugitive slaves forbidden to be 

issued. 
1846-47 Mexican War. 

1847 Burlington Savings Bank chartered. Railroads begin to 

operate. 

1848 More protests against slavery. 
1849-51 Extension of railroads. 



APPENDIX 295 

1852 Prohibitory law passed. 

1858 Vermont passes an emancipation proclamation. All 

negroes free when on Vermont soil. 
i860 Lincoln elected President. Secession of Southern states. 

1 86 1 April 2. Sumter fired on. 

April 15. Governor Fairbanks's call for troops. 
April 19. First Vermont regiment formed. 
Special session of the legislature. 

1862 New regiments formed. Vermont troops distinguish them- 

selves at Lee's Mill and Savage's Station. 

1863 Vermont troops render distinguished service at Marye's 

Heights and Gettysburg. 

1864 Vermont troops in the battles of the V^ilderness, Spottsyl- 

vania, and the Shenandoah campaign. St. Albans Raid, 
Oct. 19. 

1865 Vermont troops lead the charge at Petersburg and carry 

the flag into Richmond. End of the war. Assassina- 
tion of Lincoln, April 14. 
1 867 Morrill tariff encourages wool growing and other Vermont 
industries. 

1869 Council of Censors proposes constitutional amendments. 

1870 Constitutional Convention, Council of Censors abolished. 
Legislative sessions made biennial. Biennial state elections. 

1873-74 Financial stringency. 

1877 Great centennial anniversary celebration at Bennington. 
1880 Senator Edmunds nominated for President. Garfield 
elected, 

1885 Edward J. Phelps appointed minister to Great Britain. 

1886 State Library completed. 

1888 State Farm purchased for agricultural experiments. 

1889 Redfield Proctor appointed Secretary of War. 

1893 Henry C. Ide appointed Chief Justice of Samoa by Eng- 
land, Germany, and the United States. 
1898 May I. Dewey's victory at Manila. 

1902 High-license campaign. President Roosevelt visits Ver- 

mont. 

1903 Local-option law takes effect. 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 

Part III 

STATISTICAL TABLES 

Table A 

New York Land Grants made in Vermont, 
WITH THE Fees 









Acres 


Fees 




Grants made by Lieut. Gov. Golden, 


T765, 




36,000 


^1,125, 


.00 


" " " " " " 


1769- 


-70, 


559>5oo 


17,484. 


■37 


" a u u u u 


1774- 


-75> 


370,000 


11,562. 


•50 








965,500 


$30'i7i. 


,87 


Grants made by Gov. Moore, 


1765-69, 


144,620 


4,519-37 


" " " " Dunmore, 


1770- 


-71. 


455'95o 


14,248, 


■44 


" " " Tryon, 


1771- 


-74> 


486,500 


15,203. 


.12 


(' u u u u 


1775- 


-76, 


63,040 
2,115,610 


1,970. 


.00 


Total granted by all the governors 


$66,112. 


16 


Additional fees charged for these 


grants 










Secretary of the Province 


, $2 


:i, 156.10 






Clerk of the Council, 


2 


1,156.10 






Auditor General, 






9,784.71 






Receiver General, 




30,411.87 






Attorney General, 




I 


5,867.08 






Surveyor General, 




2 


6,445.13 







$124,820.99 

Total fees charged, $190,933.79. 

Of the above grants, all but 180,620 acres were granted in direct 
disobedience to the Order in Council of 1767. Lieutenant Governor 
Cadwallader Golden, acting as chief magistrate, treated the grants made 
by Benning Wentworth as nullities and the settlers as trespassers, and 
went on making grants after the Order in Council of 1767. Governor 
Moore respected the order. By the rest it was disregarded. In addi- 
tion to the above grants there were so-called military patents covering 
303,100 acres, making in all 2,418,710 acres granted in this state by 
New York authorities. It is charged that the military patents were 
really made largely for the benefit of speculators, to whom the officers 
and soldiers, having come from Europe and desiring to return thither, 
disposed of their claims for trifling sums. (Vermont Historical Society 
Collections, I, 158-159.) 



APPENDIX 



297 



Table B 



Governors of Vermont (^Legislative Directory^ 



Thomas Chittenden, 1778-89 

Moses Robinson, 1789-90 

Thomas Chittenden, ^ 1790-97 
PaulBrigham,2 Aug. 25-Oct. i6,'97 
Isaac Tichenor, 1 797-1 807 

Israel Smith, 1807-08 

Isaac Tichenor, 1808-09 

Jonas Galusha, 1809-13 

Martin Chittenden, 181 3-1 5 

Jonas Galusha, 1815-20 

Richard Skinner, 1820-23 
Cornelius P. Van Ness, 1823-26 
Ezra Butler, • 1826-28 

Samuel C. Crafts, 1828-31 

William A. Palmer, ^^3^-35 

Silas H. Jennison,^ 1S35-36 

Silas H. Jennison, 1836-41 

Charles Paine, 1841-43 

John Mattocks, 1843-44 

William Slade, 1844-46 

Horace Eaton, 1846-48 

Carlos Coolidge, 1848-50 

Charles K. Williams, 1850-52 

Erastus Fairbanks, 1852-53 

John S. Robinson, 1853-54 

Stephen Royce, 1854-56 



Ryland Fletcher, 1856-58 

Hiland Hall, 185S-60 

Erastus Fairbanks, 1860-61 

Frederick Holbrook, 1861-63 

J. Gregory Smith, 1863-65 

Paul Dillingham, 1865-67 

John B. Page, 1867-69 

Peter T. Washburn, 1 1869-70 

George W. Hendee,^ 1870- 

John W. Stewart, 1870-72 

Julius Converse, 1872-74 

Asahel Peck, 1874-76 

Horace Fairbanks, 1876-78 

Redfield Proctor, 1878-80 

Roswell Faniham, 1880-82 

John L. Barstow, 1882-84 

Samuel E. Pingree, 1884-86 

Ebenezer J. Ormsbee, 1886-88 
William P. Dillingham, 1888-90 

Carroll S. Page, 1890-92 

Levi K. Fuller, 1892-94 

Urban A. Woodbury, 1894-96 

Josiah Grout, 1896-98 
Edward C. Smith, 1898-1900 

William W. Stickney, 1900-02 

John G. McCullogh, 1902- 



1 Died in ofifice. 

2 Lieutenant Governor. 

3 Lieutenant Governor. 



Governor by the death of previous incumbent. 
Governor by failure of the people to elect. 



298 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



Table C 

Congressional Districts and Senators in Congress 
(^Legislative Directory') 

The state is divided into two Congressional Districts as follows : 
District I. Composed of Addison, Bennington, Chittenden, 

Franklin, Grand Isle, Lamoille, and Rutland counties. 

District II. Composed of Caledonia, Essex, Orange, Orleans, 

Washington, Windham, and Windsor counties. 



Se7iators of the First 
Moses Robinson, 2 
Isaac Tichenor,2 
Nathaniel Chipman, 
Israel Smith,^ 
Jonathan Robinson, 
Isaac Tichenor, 
Horatio Seymour, 
Benjamin Swift, 
Samuel S. Phelps, 
Solomon Foot,^ 
George F. Edmunds,^ 
Redfield Proctor, 



Senators 

Class ^ Senators of the Second Class ^ 

1791-96 Stephen R. Bradley, 1791-95 

1796-97 Elijah Paine, 1 795-1801 

1797-1803 Stephen R. Bradley, 1801-13 

1803-07 Dudley Chase,^ 1813-17 

1807-15 James Fisk,2 1817-18 

181 5-21 William A. Palmer, 1818-25 

1821-33 Dudley Chase, 1825-31 

1833-39 Samuel Prentiss,^ 1831-42 

1839-51 Samuel C. Crafts, 1842-43 

1851-66 William Upham,^ 1843-53 

1866-91 Samuel S. Phelps, 1853-54 

1891- Lawrence Brainerd, 1854-55 

Jacob Collamer,^ 1855-65 

Luke P. Poland, 1865-67 

Justin S. Morrill,3 1867-99 

Jonathan Ross, 1899-1900 

William P. Dillingham, 1900- 



1 See Constitution United States, Article I, Section 3, clause 2. 

2 Resigned. ^ Died in ofifice. 



APPENDIX 



299 



Table D 

Population of the State by Decades from the 
First Census {Census of i god) 



Year 


Population 


Increase 


Per Cent 


Density per 
S(,)UARe Mile 


1790 


85,425 






9.4 


1800 


154,465 


69,040 


80.8 


16.9 


1810 


217.895 


63,430 


41. 1 


23.9 


1820 


235,981 


i8,oS6 


8.3 


25.8 


1830 


280,652 


44,671 


18.9 


30.7 


1840 


291,948 


11,296 


4.0 


32.0 


1850 


314,120 


22,172 


7.6 


34-4 


i860 


315,098 


978 


0.3 


34-5 


1870 


330,551 


15,453 


4-9 


36.2 


18S0 


332,286 


1,735 


0.5 


36.4 


1890 


332,422 


136 


— ^ 


36.4 


igco 


343,641 


11,219 


3-4 


37-6 



1 Less than, one tenth of one per cent gain. 



300 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



Table E 



Population of Vermont f.y Counties from the First 
Census {O'/isus of i goo) 

When the first census was taken there were only seven counties. 
The formation of other counties went on after this until 1835, when 
the last one was organized. The census reports since 1840, there- 
fore, contain the distribution of population among all the present 
counties ; but the earlier reports do not. 



- 
Year 


Addison 


Benning- 
ton 


Cale- 
donia! 


Chitten- 
den 


Essex 


Frank- 
lin 


Grand . 
Isle 




6,449 


12,254 




7,295 
















1800 


13,417 


14,617 


9,377 


12,778 


1,470 


8,782 




1810 


19.993 


15,893 


18,730 


18,120 


3,087 


16,427 


3.445 


1820 


20,469 


16,125 


16,669 


16,272 


3,284 


17,192 


3,527 


1830 


24,940 


17,468 


20,967 


21,765 


3,981 


24,525 


3.696 


1840 


23,583 


16,872 


21,891 


22,977 


4,226 


24,531 


3,883 


1850 


26,549 


. 18,589 


23,595 


29,036 


4,650 


28,586 


4,145 


i860 


24,010 


19,436 


21,698 


28,171 


5,786 


27,231 


4,276 


1870 


23,484 


21,325 


22,235 


36,480 


6,811 


30,291, 


4,082 


1880 


24,173 


21,950 


23,607 


32,792 


7,931 


30,225 


4,124 


1890 


22,277 


20,448 


23,436 


35,389 


9,5'i 


29,755 


3,843 


IQOO 


2i,gi2 


21,705 


24,381 


39,600 


8,056 


30,198 


4,462 





1 Part of Washington. Annexed since i8go. 

2 Part annexed to Caledonia since 1890. 



Year 


La- 


Orange 


Orleans 


Rutland 


Wash- 


Wind- 


Wind- 












ington 2 


ham 


sor 


1790 




10,526 




15,591 




17,570 


15,740 


1800 




18,238 


1.439 


23,813 




23,581 


26,944 


iSio 




25,247 


5,830 


29,486 




26,760 


34.877 


1820 




24,681 


6,976 


29,983 


14,113 


28,457 


38,233 


1830 




27,285 


13,980 


31,294 


21,378 


28,748 


40,625 




1840 


10,475 


27,873 


13,634 


30,699 


23,506 


27,442 


40,356 


1850 


10,872 


27,296 


15,707 


33,059 


24,654 


29,062 


38,320 


i860 


12,311 


25.455 


18,981 


35.946 


27,622 


26,982 


37,193 


1870 


12,448 


23,090 


21,035 


40,651 


26,520 


26,036 


36,063 


1880 


12,684 


23.525 


22,083 


41,829 


25,404 


26,763 


35,196 


1890 


12,831 


19.575 


22,101 


45,397 


29,606 


26,547 


31,706 


I goo 


12,289 


19.313 


22,024 


44,209 


36,607 


26,660 


32,225 



APPENDIX 



301 



Table F 



Population of Vermont by Towns {Census of i goo) 



Addison 851 

Albany 1,028 

Alburg 1)474 



Andover 
Arlington . 
Athens . . 
Averill . 
Avery's Gore 



372 

M93 

180 

18 

16 



Bakersfield 1,158 



55 
840 

L763 
3.346 
8,448 



Baltimore .... 

Barnard 

Barnet 

Barre (town) ... 
Barre (city) 

Barton 2,790 

Barton Village .... /,ojo 

Barton Landhig .... 677 

Bellows Falls 4?337 

Belvidere 428 

Bennington (town) . . . 8,033 

Benftington (village) . . S^^S^ 

Benni7tgton Center . . . 21^ 

N'orth Bennington . . . byo 

Benson 844 

Berkshire L326 

BerUn 1,021 

Bethel 1,611 

Bloomfield 564 



Bolton .... 
Bradford . . . 
Bradford Village . 
Braintree . . . 
Brandon .... 
Brattleboro (town) 
Brattleboro Vtllasie 



486 

L338 

614 

2,759 
6,640 
5^297 



Bridgewater 972 

Bridport 956 

Brighton 2,023 

Bristol 2,061 

Brookfield 996 

Brookline 171 

Brownington 748 

Brunswick 106 

Buel's Gore 20 

Burke 1,148 

Burlington 18,640 



Cabot I 

Cabot Village 

Calais i 

Cambridge i 

Canaan 

Castleton 2 

Cavendish i 

Charleston i 

Charlotte i 

Chelsea i 

Chester i 

Chester Village .... 

Chittenden 

Clarendon 

Colchester 5 

Concord i 

Corinth 

Cornwall 

Coventry 

Craftsbury i 



,126 
226 
,101 
,606 

934 
,089 

.352 
,025 

,254 
,070 

.775 
950 
621 

915 

.352 
,129 
978 
850 
728 
,251 



Danby 964 

Danville 1,628 

Derby 3,274 



302 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



Derby Village sgy 

Derby Line 309 

Dorset i,477 

Dover 503 

Dummerston 726 

Duxbury 778 

East Haven 171 

East Montpelier . . . . 1,061 

Eden 73^ 

Elmore . 550 

Enosburg 2,054 

Enosburg Falls .... 954 

Essex 2,203 

Essex Junction . . . . 1,141 

Fairfax 1,338 

Fairfield 1,830 

Fairhaven 2,999 

Fairhaven Village . . . 2,4^0 

Fairlee 438 

Fayston 466 

Ferdinand 41 

Ferrisburg i»6i9 

Fletcher 75° 

Franklin i)i45 

Georgia 1,280 

Glastonbury 48 

Glover 891 

Goshen ....... 286 

Grafton 804 

Granby 182 

Grand Isle 851 

Granville 544 

Greensboro 874 

Groton 1,059 

Guildhall 455 

Guilford 782 



Halifax 662 

Hancock 253 

Hardwick 2,466 

Hardwick Village . . . 1^34 

Hartford 3^817 

Hartland i>340 

Highgate 1,980 

Hinesburg 1,216 

Holland 838 

Hubbardton 488 

Huntington 728 

Hydepark ^Al~ 

Hydepark Village . . . 422 

Ira 350 

Irasburg 939 

Isle La Motte 508 

Jamaica 800 

Jay 530 

Jericho 1,373 

Johnson 1,391 

Johnson Village .... ^Sj 

Kirby 350 

Landgrove 225 

Leicester 5°9 

Lemington 204 

Lewis 8 

Lincoln IJS^ 

Londonderry 961 

Lowell 982 

Ludlow 2,042 

Ludlow Village .... 1,454 

Lunenburg 9^8 

Lyndon 2,956 

Lyndon Center .... 232 

Lyndonville i)2 74 



APPENDIX 



303 



Maidstone 206 

Manchester i»955 

Marlboro 448 

Marshfield IJ032 

Mendon . 392 

Middlebury 3i04S 

Middlebiiry Villaf^e . . . 1,8 gy 

Middlesex 883 

Middletown Springs . . 746 

Milton 1,804 

Monkton 912 

Montgomery IJ876 

Montpelier 6,266 

Moretown 902 

Morgan 510 

Morristown 2,583 

Morrisville 1,262 

Mount Holly 999 

Mount Tabor 494 

Newark 500 

Newbury 2,125 

Newfane 905 

New Haven i»io7 

Newport 3) 113 

Newport Village .... 1,8^4 

Northfield 2,855 

Northfield Village . . . i,jo8 

North Hero 712 

North Troy 562 

Norton 692 

Norwich i»303 

Orange 598 

Orwell . , 15150 

Panton 409 

Pawlet 1,731 

Peacham 794 

Peru 372 

Pittsfield 435 



Pittsford 1,866 

Plainfield 716 

Plainfield Village . . . j^i 

Plymouth 646 

Pomfret 777 

Poultney 3»io8 

Pownal 1.976 

Pownal Village .... 401 

Proctor 2,136 

Proctor Village .... 2,01 j 

Putney 969 

Randolph 3J41 

Randolph Village . . . 1,540 

Reading 649 

Readsboro i>i39 

Readsboro Village . . . 6j8 

Richford 2,421 

Richford Village .... 151 J 

Richmond i>o57 

Ripton 525 

Rochester i>250 

Rockingham 5,809 

Roxbury 712 

Royalton 1,427 

Rupert 863 

Rutland (town) .... 1,109 

Rutland (city) 11,499 

Ryegate 995 

Salisbury 692 

Sandgate 482 

Searsburg 161 

Shaftsbury 1,857 

Sharon 709 

Sheffield 724 

Shelbume 1,202 

Sheldon i,34i 

Sherburne 402 

Shoreham 1,193 

Shrewsbury 935 



304 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



Somerset 67 

South Burlington ... 971 

South Hero 917 

Springfield 3,432 

Springfield Village . . . 2,040 

St. Albans (town) . . . 1,715 

St. Albans (city) .... 6,239 

St. George 90 

St. Johnsbury 7,010 

St. Johnsbury Village . . J, 666 

Stamford 677 

Stannard 222 

Starksboro 902 

Stockbridge 822 

Stowe 1,926 

Stowe Village ^00 

Strafford 1,000 

Stratton 271 

Sudbury 474 

Sunderland 518 

Sutton 694 

Swanton 3'745 

Swanton Village .... 1,168 

Thetford 1,249 

Tinmouth 404 

Topsham 1,117 

Townshend 833 

Troy 1,467 

Tunbridge 885 

Underhill 1,140 

Vergennes i,753 

Vernon 578 

Vershire 641 

Victory 321 

Waitsfield 760 

Walden 764 

Wallingford i'575 



Waltham 264 

Wardsboro 637 

Warren 826 

Warren's Gore .... 18 

Washington 820 

Waterbury 2,810 

Water bury Village . . . A J 97 

Waterford 705 

Waterville 529 

Weathersfield .... 1,089 

Wells 606 

Wells River 565 

West Derby 913 

West Fairlee 531 

Westfield 646 

Westford 888 

Westhaven 355 

Westminster 1,295 

Westmore 390 

Weston 756 

West Rutland .... 2,914 

West Windsor .... 513 

Weybridge 518 

Wheelock 567 

Whiting 361 

Whitingham 1,042 

Williamstown 1,610 

Williston 1,176 

Wilmington 1,221 

Wilmingtofi Village . . . 410 

Windham 356 

Windsor ...... 2,119 

Windsor Village .... /,65'6 

Winhall 449 

Winooski 3,786 

Wolcott 1,066 

Woodbury 862 

Woodford 279 

Woodstock 2,557 

Woodstock Village . . . 1,284 

Worcester 636 



APPENDIX 



305 



Table G 

Growth of Manufacturing in Vermont since 1850 
{Censtcs of i goo) 















Increase 








Average 










Number OF 










Per Cent 






Capital 


Number 


Amount of 


Value of 




Year 


P^STABLISH- 










IN Value 






Invested 


OF Wage 


Wages Paid 


Product 






MENTS 




Earners 






OF 

Product 


1850 


1,849 


$5,001,377 


8,445 


$2,202,348 


$8,570,920 


_ 


i860 


1,883 


9,498,617 


fo,497 


3,004,986 


14,637,807 


70.8 


1870 


3.270 


20,329,637 


18,686 


6,264,581 


32,184,606 


119. 9I 


1880 


2,874 


23,26*5,224 


17,540 


5,164,479 


31,354,366 


-2.62 


i8go 


3.031 


32,763,291 


22,119 


8,427,553 


38,340,066 


22.3 


1900 


4,071 


48,547,964 


29,455 


12,237,684 


57,623,815 


50-4 



Table H 

Agricultural Industry in Vermont since 1850 
{^Census of i goo) 



\^Ll^A< 


Number of 
Farms 


Acreage 


Valuation of 
Farm Property 


Value of Product 


1S50 
i860 
1870 
1880 
1896 

I goo 


29,763 
31,556 
33,827 
35,522 
32,573 
33,104 


4,125,822 
4,274,414 
4,528,804 
4,882,588 
4,395,646 
4,724,440 


$78,749,737 

114,196,989 

168,506, 189 3 

130,811,490 

101,805,370 

108,451,427 


$34,647,0273 
22,082,656 
20,364,980 
33.570,892 



1 The cash valuations of this year, and consequently the ratio, should be 
scaled down about one fifth, owing to the depreciated currency in which the 
returns were made. 

2 Decrease. 

3 Diminish one fifth to reduce to a specie basis. 



306 HISTORY OF VERMONT 



Table I 

Agricultural Products in i^s'^ {Census of i8 jo) 

Wool produced 3,400,717 lbs. 

Butter 12,137,980 

Cheese 8,720,834 

Maple sugar 6,349,357 

Hops 288,023 

Beeswax and honey 249,422 

Flax 20,852 

Hay 866,153 tons 

Buckwheat 209,819 bu. 

Barley 42,150 " 

Peas and beans 104,649 " 

Irish potatoes 4,951,014 " 

Orchard products ^3i5>255 

Home-made manufactures .... ^267,710 

Market gardens ^18,853 



APPENDIX 307 

Table J 

I 

The Leading Manufactures in 1840, arranged in the 
Order of Relative Imfoktai^ce {Census of 1840) 

Producing the value of 
Wool : fulling mills, 239 ^ 

manufactories, 95/ ^i'33'^'953 

Mills : flouring mills, 7 (4,495 bbls.); sawmills, 1,081 ; "1 

oil mills, 20; gristmills, 312 ] 1,083,124 

Bricks and lime 402,218 

Leather, saddlery, etc 361,468 

Lumber 346,939 

Paper, 17 manufactories 179,720 

Carriages and wagons 162,097 

Cotton, 7 factories (7,254 spindles) 113,000 

Machinery . 101,354 

Furniture 83,275 

Ships and vessels built 72,000 

Hats, caps, and straw^ bonnets 65,251 

Granite, marble, etc 62,515 

Glasshouses, 2 establishments 55,ooo 

Drugs, medicines, paints, and dyes 38»475 

Various metals (not precious metals) 24,900 

Potteries, 8 establishments 23,000 

Hardw^are, cutlery, etc 16,650 

Value of all manufactures for which figures are 

given in the census $5,593,842 

Total capital invested in manufactures .... $4,326,440 

Employees enumerated 7,000 

In addition to the above list of manufactures there were produced 
718^ tons of pot and pearl ash ; furs and skins to the value of $1,750 ; 
precious metals to the value of $3,000 ; 39 pounds of silk ; a small amount 
of flax; 1,158 small arms; 50,300 pounds of soap; 28,687 pounds of 
tallow ; ginseng and forest products, $2,500 ; musical instruments, $2,200. 
There were in the state 29 printing offices, 14 binderies, 2 daily news- 
papers, 26 weeklies, 2 semi-weeklies, 3 periodicals. There were paper 
manufactures of playing cards, etc., not included in the list above, 
amounting to $35,000. There were 261 tanneries which tanned 102,763 
sides of sole leather and 102,937 sides of upper leather. There were 
two distilleries making 3,500 gallons of liquor, and one brewery producing 
1 2,800 gallons. There were two rope walks making #4,000 worth of cordage. 



3o8 HISTORY OF VERMONT 



II 

The Leading Manufactures in i860, arranged in the 
Order of Relative Impoktanck (Census 0/ 1860) 

Establislutients Producing the value of 

Woolen goods 45 ^2,936,826 

Flour and meal 123 1,659,898 

Leather 108 1,002,853 

Marble works 50 946,235 

Sawed lumber 404 90i»5i9 

Marble quarries 16 .... . 7i5'55o 

Machinery 24 501,276 

Carriages 133 475'06o 

Boots and shoes 148 440,366 

Tin, copper, and sheet-iron ware . 60 280,201 

Furniture 64 268,735 

Clothing 39 250,669 

Iron castings 18 231,230 

Blacksmithing 167 207,786 

Slate quarrying 14 207,150 

Industries producing over ^200,000 are given. 



Ill 

The Leading Manufactures in 1870, arranged in the 
Order of Relative Importance (Qv/j-z/j- ^//^/o) 

Establishme7its Froducing the vahie of 

Woolen goods ....... 43 ^3'550'962 

Sawed lumber ....... 347 3'H2,307 

Planed lumber ....... 13 2,526,228 

Flouring mills ....... 81 2,071,594 

Scales and balances ..... 2 1,629,000 

Tanned leather ....... 86 1,249,942 

Marble and stone work .... 29 960,984 

Carriages and sleds 169 839,029 

Leather, curried 64 762,571 

Machinery 37 .... . 756,080 

Hosiery 7 55^129 

Boots and shoes 20 547'789 

Cotton goods 8 546,510 

Furniture 47 540,521 

Agricultural implements ... 45 523,669 

Sashes, doors, and blinds ... 43 518,125 

Tin, copper, and sheet-iron ware . 97 .... . 505'005 

Industries producing over ^500,000 are given. 



APPENDIX 



309 



IV 

The Leading Manufactures in 1880, arranged in the 
Order of Relative Importance {Census of 1880) 



Establish inents 



Producing the value of 



Sawed lumber 688 

Woolen goods 44 

Flouring and grist mills . 

Planed lumber 

Scales and balances .... 
Marble and stone work . . . 
Mixed textiles 



. . 227 

. . 18 

• • 3 

. . 69 

• • 7 

Paper, not specified 13 

Tanned leather 53 

Cotton goods 8 

Foundry and machine shops . . 45 

Agricultural implements ... 35 
Musical instruments, organs, and 

materials 2 

Hosiery and knit goods .... 6 

Curried leather . . ■ 24 



,258,816 
,217,807 
,038,688 
,709,522 
,080,474 
>303'790 
.277»903 
,237,484 
,084,503 
915,864 
783,828 
718,455 

680,800 
595^270 
530,337 



Industries producing over ^500,000 are given. 



The Leading Manufactures in 1890, arranged in the 
Order of Relative Importance {Census of i8go) 

Establishments Producing tlie value oj 

Lumber, and other mill products 

from logs or bolts 736 

Flouring and grist mills . . . . 217 

Woolen goods 29 

Paper 14 



Planing-mill products 31 

Marble and stone work .... 46 

Cheese, butter, and condensed milk 1 23 

Monuments and tombstones . . 96 

Foundry and machine shops . . 61 

Hosiery and knit goods .... 10 

Cotton goods 6 

Carpentering 76 

Musical instruments 3 

Patent medicines and compounds 13 

Industries producing over $750,000 are given, 



$6,843,817 
2,890,174 
2,723,683 
2,289,901 
1,868,760 
1,656,637 
1,602,641 
1,492,384 
1,199,067 
1,105,958 
914,685 

843'795 
794,346 

777,111 



3IO 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



VI 

The Leading Manufactures in 1900, arranged in the 
Order of Relative Importance (Qv/j-^^j ^ /poo) 

Establishments Producing the value of 

^6,131,808 
5,656,265 
4,045,611 

3'384>773 
3,222,347 



658 

255 

268 

27 

211 



Lumber and timber 

Cheese, butter, and condensed milk 
Monuments and tombstones . 
Paper and wood pulp .... 
Flouring and grist mills .... 
Planing-mill products, including 

sashes, doors, and blinds . . 46 

Woolen goods 23 

Marble and stone work .... 54 
Foundry and machine shops . . 61 
Patent medicines and compounds 24 
Hosiery and knit goods .... 14 

Furniture factories 24 

Carpentering 78 

Industries producing over ^1,000,000 are given. 



2,598,581 
2,572,646 
2,484,551 
2,185,510 
2,125,016 
1,834,685 
1,252,742 
1,245,507 



INDEX 



Abenakis Indians, 5. 

Adams, J. Q., 138, 235. 

Agriculture, transition in, between 
1812 and Civil War, 213-217; 
since 1850, 306. 

Albany, N.Y., trial of cases at, 75, 
76; market at, for settlers, 145. 

Algonquins, battle with Iroquois, 4. 

Allen, Ebenezer, frees Dinah Mat- 
tis, 234. 

Allen, Ethan, 75 ; characteristics 
of, 78-79 ; reward offered for, 
80 ; leads attack on Ticonderoga, 
91 ; line of march, 92 ; demands 
surrender, 93 ; taken prisoner at 
Montreal, 94 ; sent to England, 
94 ; returned to New York, 94 ; 
ordered to suppress riots in 
Windham County, 124; ap- 
proached by British, 130 ; writes 
to Congress, 131 ; death of, 135. 

Allen, Ira, on Haldimand negotia- 
tions, 132-133. 

American Institute of Instruction, 
229. 

American Revolution, bearing of, 
on situation in the New Hamp- 
shire Grants, 90, 111-114, 117- 
119; share of Vermont in, 90- 
106 ; benefits to Vermont from, 
110-112; rapid settlement dur- 
ing, 122; inducements to set- 
tlers, 123 ; Ticonderoga, 91-94; 



Crown Point, 93, 96; retreat 
from Ticonderoga, 98 ; Hub- 
bardton, 98-99 ; Bennington, 
103-106. See also Bennington 
and Burgoyne. 

Amherst, General, at Crown Point, 
41, 48. 

Ammonoosuc, 31, 32. 

Antietam, battle of, 245. 

Appendix, 273-310. 

Apple sauce, apple butter, 205. 

Arnold, Benedict, joins expedition 
against Ticonderoga, 91-92; 
captures British sloop, 93 ; com- 
mands American flotilla on Lake 
Champlain, 95 ; bums his fleet, 
96. 

Arrow points, 8 ; illustrations of, 
7, 8, 9. 

Arthur, Chester A., illustration of, 
225 ; birthplace of, 224. 

Artisans in early communities, 
141. 

Asheries, 63; at Burke, 165. 

Ashes, value of, 62, 63, 147, 168. 

Association of smugglers, 190; of 
anti-smugglers, 190. 

Axes, Indian manufacture of, lo-; 
illustrations of, 9 ; of settlers, 
illustration, 193. 

Bailey, General, at Newbury, 44. 
Bailey, Phineas, 225. 



312 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



Baker, Remember, reward offered 
for, 8i. 

Banks, agitation for, 158; bank 
measure vetoed, 1 59 ; establish- 
ment of, in 1806, 159; incor- 
poration of, 225. 

Barnard, fort at, during Revolu- 
tion, 106. 

Barton, General, builds sawmill, 
167. 

Barton Landing, 168; fight with 
smugglers at, 189. 

Barton River, Indian route along, 
1 8 ; followed by Rogers's rangers, 

32. 

Barton, settlement of, 167 ; river 
used by settlers, 168. 

Baum, at Bennington, loi ; tactics 
of, 103-104. 

Beach, Major, 92. 

Beaver, hunted by Indians, 12; 
move northward, 144. 

Bees, logging, clearing, etc., 203, 
205, 209 ; cooperative element 
in, 209 ; social element in, 209. 

Bellow^s Falls, Indian inscription 
near, 11. 

Bennington, grant and settlement 
of, 47-48 ; action of, regarding 
disputed titles, 76 ; leadership 
of, 77 ; military stores at, 100 ; 
battle of, 103-106; portrait of 
veterans of, 103; estimate of 
battle at, 105 ; memorial monu- 
ment at, 107; newspaper estab- 
lished at, 157. 

Berkshire, removal of women and 
children from, 109. 

Bethel, fort at, during Revolution, 
106. 



Beverages, 57. 

Bibliography, 286-289. 

Bill of credit, facsimile of, 158. 

Blacksmithing, T42. 

Black Snake, smuggling boat, 186. 

Boston, market for settlers, 151. 

Brattleboro, Indian rock at, 10. 

Breakenridge, attack on farm of,77. 

Breweries, built by lottery, 162. 

Breyman, commander of British 
reserve, 10 1 ; sent to reenforce 
Baum, 103, 104. 

Bridges, built by lottery, 162; 
bridge over which Hessians 
marched to Bennington, illustra- 
tion of, 97. 

Burgoyne, extract from letter of, 
90 ; invasion by, 98 ; captures 
Ticonderoga, 98 ; march of, ob- 
structed, 100 ; proclamation of, 
107 ; details division to capture 
supplies, loi ; terror caused by 
invasion of, 108, 109. 

Burke, early settlers of, 165. 

Burlington, threatened attack on, 
175 ; field officers meet at, 238 ; 
old view of, 218; college estab- 
lished at, 155; lumber trade at, 
217. 

Butchering, 206. 

Cabinet work in 18 10, 142. 
Caledonia County, early growth 

of, 164; settled by Scotch, 164; 

how named, 165. 
Calumet, 10. 
Canada, invasion of, 94 ; retreat 

from, 94 ; project to invade, 132 ; 

winter trade to, 147 ; attempted 

invasion of, 173. 



INDEX 



313 



Canadians set fire to barracks at 
Derby, 187. 

Canals, 217, 219. 

Candle making, 60. 

Carding mills, 152, 153. 

Carleton, British commander, 
abandons Montreal, 94 ; cap- 
tures Crown Point, 96; threat- 
ens Ticonderoga, 96 ; returns to 
Canada, 96. 

Cartier, enters the St. Lawrence, i ; 
at Hochelaga, 2. 

Castleton, rendezvous for volun- 
teers, 91 ; retreat through, 98,99. 

Catamount Tavern, 47, 79 ; illus- 
trations of, 78, 79, 80. 

Cattle, smuggling of, 188-190 ; 
breeds of, 216. 

Caughnawaga Indians," market of, 
169 ; claim to land in Vermont, 
169-170. 

Chaise, one-horse, illustration of, 
210. 

Chambly, Falls of, 3, 95. 

Champlain, Samuel de, extract 
from journal of, i, 3; discovery 
of Vermont by, 3 ; battle with 
Iroquois, 4. 

Champlain Valley, archaeology of, 
6, 8 ; scouting in, 24, 29 ; mili- 
tary posts in, 90 ; campaign of 
1777 in, 96, 98-99; in War of 
181 2, 173, 174; canal in, 217, 
219. 

Charleston, Indian visits to, 5 ; 
settlement of, 167. 

Charlestown, N. H. See Fort 
Number Four. 

Cheese basket, 214; press, 215; 
factory system, 215. 



Chimney Point, stone fort at, 24 ; 
evacuation of, 29 ; settlement 
near, 49. 

Chisels, Indian manufacture of, 8 ; 
illustrations of, 7. 

Chittenden, Martin, Federalist 
governor, 176, 191. 

Chittenden, Thomas, letter to Con- 
gress, 120; negotiations with 
British, 131 ; character and serv- 
ices of, 139. 

Chronological table, 289-295. 

Churches, 61, 147. 

Circulars of educational informa- 
tion, 265. 

Civil War, 234-254; Vermont's 
preparation for, 236 ; military 
equipment in 186 1, 237 ; attack 
on Fort Sumter, 237 ; popular 
feeling, 237 ; private donations, 
237 ; tactics, field of action, ar- 
mies of the North and South,240 ; 
first VeiTTiont regiment, 241 ; 
succeeding regiments, 241 ; serv- 
ice of the "Old Brigade," 241- 
242 ; Peninsular campaign, 242 ; 
second Bull Run campaign, 244 ; 
McClellan superseded by Burn- 
side, 245 ; storming of Marye's 
Heights, 245 ; Hooker succeeds 
Burnside, 245 ; Lee invades the 
North, 246; Gettysburg, 246- 
247 ; General Grant assumes 
command of Union armies, 248; 
campaigns under Grant, 248 ; 
Shenandoah Valley, 249 ; Sheri- 
dan's ride, 249 ; Sherman's march 
through the South, 249 ; Lee 
surrenders, 250; Vermont's con- 
tribution to the war, 251-253; 



314 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



losses of Vermont troops, 252, 
253; McMahon on Vermont 
troops,25i; Sheridan's eulogy of 
Vermont soldiers, 253 ; effects 
of war on industrial conditions, 

255-257- 
Clark, Admiral, birthplace of, 271 ; 

services of, as captain, 271. 
Clinton, Governor George, grants 

land in Vermont, 68. 
Clinton, Sir Henry, letter to, from 

Lord Germaine, 132. 
Clyde River, trout in, 167. 
Cobblers, 142, 207. 
Cohasse intervals, 5 ; Indians stop 

at, with captives, 22 ; Rogers's 

party at, 23 ! attract settlers, 

49-50- 

Coinage in Vermont, 159. 

Coins, early Vermont, description 
of, 1 59-161 ; illustrations of, 160. 

Colchester, ornamental jar found 
at, 9, 10. 

Cold Harbor, battle of, 248. 

Cold seasons of 181 3 and 181 6, 
168, 197-199. 

Colleges previous to 1812, 155. 

Colonial politics, 13-15. 

Colonization, English and French 
methods of, 15-17. 

Committees, service of, in Ver- 
mont, 82, 84 ; in Revolution, 82, 
84. 

Committee system as a revolution- 
ary organization, 82. 

Committee of Correspondence, of 
Dummerston, 86 ; of Boston, 
91. 

Committee of Safety, Massachu- 
setts, 91. 



Communal organization, examples 
of, 58. 

Conjiance, the, 179. 

Congress, Continental, vote to pay 
Green Mountain Boys for serv- 
ices, 93 ; attitude of, on ques- 
tion of admitting Vermont to 
Union, 127, 136, 138; influence 
of Germaine letter on, 133. 

Congressional Districts, 298. 

Connecticut, 46 ; settlers from, 47, 
48, 86 ; patriots in, plan to take 
Ticonderoga, 91. 

Conventions, 84 ; constitutional, 
113-117; nature and origin of, 
119, n. 

Cooperation throughout all social 
organization, 194-195. 

Coos meadows, or Cohasse inter- 
vals, 5 ; Indians with captives 
stop at, 22 ; Rogers's party at, 
22 ; attract settlers, 49, 50. 

Coosuck Indians, branch of Algon- 
quins, 5. 

Copper articles used by Indians, 
10; illustrations of, 8. 

Corinth, fort at, during Revolution, 
106. 

Corn, shellers, 205 ; husking, 205 ; 
games with, 205. 

Cotton, 1 5T ; amount used in 1810, 
153; invention of cotton gin, 
153; cotton wool, 153. 

Council of Safety, 79, 82. 

Counterfeiting, 157, 161. 

Counties, 163; under New York, 
277 ; formation of present, 277. 

Courthouses, building of, 162, 191. 

Coventry, famine in, 168. 

Crab Island Shoal, 176. 



INDEX 



315 



Craftsbury, smugglers' cattle 

guarded at, 189. 
Crampton's Gap, battle of, 244. 
Crawford Notch, route through, 

166. 
Crops, failure of, in 1 816, 198-199 ; 

diversity of early, 201-202. 
Cross, James, diary of, 39. 
Crown Point, captured by Warner, 

93; American fleet overtaken 

at, 96 ; captured by Carleton, 

96. 
Crystal Lake, point on Indian 

route, 18; Rogers stops at, 32; 

old Indian camping ground, 167. 
Cumberland County, roads in, 43 ; 

court of, 87. 
Cumberland Head, 176. 

Dairy products in 1840, 215; mod- 
ern dairy system, 258-259. 

Danby, training school for teach- 
ers at, 155. 

Davenport, Thomas, electrical in- 
ventions of, 225. 

Debtors, 125; legislation for, 126. 

Deerfield, raid on, 21. 

Delaplace, commander at Ticon- 
deroga, 93. 

Derby in War of 1812, 173, 174, 
180, 187, 188. 

Dewey, Admiral, services of, as 
commodore, 270 ; illustration of, 
birthplace of, 270. 

Dishes, w'ooden, 194. 

Disorder in Rutland and Windsor 
counties, 126. 

Distaff, 151. 

Dorset, regiment formed at, 94 ; 
constitutional conventions at. 



1 1 3-1 14; manufacture of mar- 
ble fireplace stones at, 148. 

Dummer, Fort, building of, 25-27 ; 
Captain Kellogg at, 28; scouting 
parties of, 27-29, 41 ; life at, 36. 

Dummerston, leads movement 
against royal authority, 86 ; 
chooses committee of corre- 
spondence, 86. 

Dutch settle at Manhattan, 13. 

Dyes, homemade vegetable, 208. 

Eagle, The, 175. 

Echo Pond, 167. 

Edmunds, George F., Senator, 229 ; 
work fornational university, 230. 

Education, first schools, 61-63 '> 
previous to 1812, 154-155; de- 
velopment of, before Civil War, 
226-230; "oldredschoolhouse," 
227 ; services of "Father" Hall, 
228-229; teachers' association, 
229; educational work since 
Civil War, 263-269 ; normal 
schools, 265, 267, 268 ; teachers' 
institutes, 265 ; county examina- 
tions, 266 ; town system, 267 ; 
school buildings, 267 ; develop- 
ment of high schools, 267-268 ; 
recent legislation, 268. See also 
Superintendent of education. 

Electrical inventions, 225. 

Embargo, of 1807, effect of, on 
trade, 182; of 1808, 183. 

English settlers, colonial politics 
of, 14. 

"Equivalent lands," 13, n. 

Erie Canal, 218-219. 

Estey, Jacob, 224 ; Estey organs, 
224. 



3i6 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



Factory system, development of, 
260-261. 

Fairbanks, Governor Erastus, on 
slavery issue, 234, 238; calls 
special session of legislature, 
238. 

Fairbanks, Joseph, 223. 

Fairbanks, Thaddaeus, inventor of 
scales, 223. 

Fairhaven, paper mill at, 146. 

Farming, farm property in i860, 
221; early hay farms, 144; 
dairy farms, 144 ; farm products 
before 1812, 145; changes in 
farm implements, 216. 

Fay, Stephen, landlord of Cata- 
mount Tavern, 79. 

Fences, board, 59 ; slash, 201 ; 
Virginia, 201. 

Fireplaces, 59; used for cooking, 
60; illustration of, 61 ; in school- 
houses, 62; in Catamount Tav- 
ern, 80. 

Flannel, home manufacture of, 
152 ; uses of, 152. 

Flax, 151 ; illustration of wheel, 
152. 

Fly, The, revenue cutter, captures 
Black Snake, 186. 

Foot pans, 203, 204. 

Fort Number Four, 20 ; relief 
party sent from, 32; Rogers 
arrives at, 33; Melvin's party 
calls at, 41 ; road cut from, to 
Crown Point, 42, 44 ; settlers 
obtain supplies from, 50. 

Fortifications, remains of Indian, 8. 

Forts, temporarily occupied dur- 
ing Revolution, 106 ; French, on 
Richelieu River, 23; on Isle Ea 



Motte, 23 ; English at Chimney 
Point, 24 ; Dummer, 25-29, 36, 
40, 41. See also Crown Point, 
Ticonderoga, and Fort Number 
Four. 

Franklin, Benjamin, obtains Ger- 
maine letter, 132. 

Franklin County, smuggling 
through, 190. 

French, colonial politics of, 14; 
methods of colonizing, 15. 

French and Indian wars, 13-37; 
cause of, 1 5 ; result of, 46 ; Indian 
raids, 20-22; Indian trails, 17- 
20; scouting parties, 27-29, 34; 
Rogers's raid, 30-33. See also 
St. Francis Indians, Fort Dum- 
mer, Deei-field, Crown Point, 
and Stark. 

French River, 19. 

French, William, shot at West- 
minster, 88, 89. 

Frontier life, 51-65; posts, 22-24. 

Fruit raising by first settlers, 57, 

145- 
Fur trade, its bearing on colonial 
politics, 16. 

Game, prevalence of, 12; gradual 
extinction of, 144, 169. 

Games, with corn for counters, 205. 

Garrison, William Eloyd, at Ben- 
nington, 235. 

Geographical notes, 273-277. 

Geological notes, 278-280. 

Geological wealth, industries de- 
pending on, 261. 

George III, 68, 73. 

Germaine, Eord George, letter to, 
90, 107; letter of, 132, 137. 



INDEX 



317 



Gettysburg, battle of, 246-247. 

Glass factory at Lake Dunmore, 
147. 

Gouges, Indian manufacture of, 8. 

Government, in the New Hamp- 
shire Grants and in New York, 
contrasted, 71 ; early form of, 
in the grants, 81-84. ^ee also 
Vermont. 

Governors of Vermont, list of, 
297. 

Graham, J. A., Descriptive Sketch 
of Vermont, 143, n. 

Grammar schools and academies, 

155- 

Grand Isle, Indian relics on, 8. 

Granite industry, 224, 262-263. 

Granitic Mountains, 274-275. 

Grants, number and" extent of, in 
1765, 50 ; controversy with New 
York, 66-89; form of self-gov- 
ernment, 81-84. 

Green Mountains, 5, 274. 

Green Mountain Boys, 78 ; choose 
their own leaders, 92, 94 ; cap- 
ture Ticonderoga, 92-93 ; fur- 
ther service of, in Revolutionary 
War, 94, 95. 

Gristmills, 55, 58; tolls taken at, 

53- 
Growler, The, 175. 

Ilaldimand negotiations, 130-133, 
137- 

Hall, Samuel R., educational pio- 
neer, 228, 229. 

Hamilton, Alexander, public serv- 
ices of, 1 35 ; position of, concern- 
ing the New York controversy, 
135- 



Hampton, General, stationed at 

Burlington, 175. 
Hams, smoking, 206. 
Harmon, Reuben, coins copper 

money, i 59. 
Harrington, Judge, pronuncia- 

mento on slavery, 235. 
Hart, Miss Emma, teacher, 229. 
Harvesting, 205. 
Hatchels, 150, 151. 
Hay reeve, 58. 
Haying, 202. 

Hazen road, the, 44, 45, 164, 188. 
Hochelaga, Indian village of, 2. 
Hog ward', 58. 
Homes, early, primitive character 

of, 54, 58-60. 
Honey, use of, in place of sugar, 

56, 57- 
Hoosac Valley, 47. 
Horses, Morgan, 215. 
Hosiery and knit goods, manufac- 
ture of, 260. 
Houses, brick and mortar, 145- 

146. 
Howe, General, 193. 
Hubbardton, battle of, 98-99. 

Indian road, the, 19-20; Melvin's 
expedition on, 41 ; cut out by 
white men as a military road, 42. 

Indians, degree of civilization of, 
1 1 ; mode of life of, 11, 12; atti- 
tudes of, toward the French and 
English, 16; trails of, 17-20; 
raids of, 20-22, 108-109; claims 
of, to land in Vermont, 1 69-1 70 ; 
peaceful visits of, 5, 168, 169. 

Industries, rise of, 63 ; develop- 
ment of, due to transportation, 



3i8 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



140; changes in, after the War 
of 1 81 2, 140; extractive, 192; or- 
ganization of, 195; leading, in 
1900, 258; analysis of, 258-263. 

Inscriptions, Indian, 10, 11. 

Insurance companies, 225. 

-Intelligence, evidence of, in early 
communities, 61-63, 155-156. 

Internal improvements, 218. 

Inventiveness, American, 193-194. 

Irasburg, smugglers at, 190. 

Iron industry, early foundries and 
forges, 142-144; effect of the 
War of 1812 on, 143, 174. 

Iroquois, battle with Algonquins, 4. 

Isle La Motte, Arnold at, 95 ; Brit- 
ish fleet at, 176. 

Itinerant craftsmen, cobblers and 
weavers, 207. 

Jackman, Alonzo, 225. 

Jails, building of, 191. 

Jarvis, William, consul to Portu- 
gal, sends merino sheep to Ver- 
mont, 213. 

Jay, John, land grant to, 136. 

Jefferson, Thomas, visits Vermont, 
183; embargo policy of, 183; 
proclamation of, 184; reply of 
St. Albans citizens to, 185 ; rela- 
tion of, to internal improve- 
ments, 218. 

Jesuit Relations, 17. 

Jesuits, work among Indians, 16. 

Journal of the Times, 235. 

Jurisdiction, change of, in New 
Hampshire Grants, 70-71. 

Kellogg, Captain, at Fort Dummer, 
28; journal of, 28-29. 



Lake Champlain, discovered by 
Samuel de Champlain, 3 ; Indian 
battle on shore of, 4; Indian 
route on, 19, 20 ; forts on, 23, 24 ; 
naval engagements on, 95-96; 
in War of 1812, 174-181; lum- 
ber trade on, 149-150; steam 
navigation on, 149-183; smug- 
gling on, 184-186. See also 
Crown Point and Ticonderoga. 

Lake George, Burgoyne's portage 
from, 98. 

Lake Memphremagog, an Indian 
fishing ground, 168. 

Lakes and ponds, 276. 

Land tenure in New York and in 
the New Hampshire Grants, 70- 

71- 
Lead mine, 146. 
Lee's Mill, battle of, 241. 
Libraries, early town, 155; growth 

of endowed, 229; spread of, since 

Civil War, 269. 
Lime, early use of, as fertilizer, 

144. 
Lincoln, President, calls for troops, 

237, 238. 
Linen, process of making, 151; 

quantity made in 18 10, 152, 

154. 

Linnet, The, 177. 

Looms, in 18 10, 154; illustration 
of, with rag carpet, 208. 

Lotteries, uses of, 161-162. 

Lumber, small value of, to early 
settlers, 63; early trade in, 149- 
150; industry in 1900,259; busi- 
ness transition in, 260. 

Lyndon, early market for northern 
towns, 167. 



INDEX 



319 



Macdonough, 172, 175, 176, 177, 
178, 181. 

Manchester, Stark at, 102 ; schools 
of, 146. 

Manhattan, settlement of, 13. 

Manufactures, leading, from 1840 
to 1900, 307-310. 

Manufacturing, in i860, 221-224; 
growth of, since 1850, 305. 

Map exercises, 280-281. 

Maple sugar, early method of 
making, 56 ; Indian mode of 
making, 56 ; old and modern 
methods compared, 199-200. 

Maps, list of, 281. 

Marble, quarry at Middlebury, 148 ; 
industry before Civil War, 224; 
industry since Civil War, 261- 
262. 

Markets, colonial local, 142 ; at 
Boston, 151; at Portland, 151; 
at Montreal, 150, 168, 171 ; at 
Quebec, 149, 150, 168, 171; at 
Albany, 145; at Troy, 144; at 
New York, 145, 217, 218. 

Marsh, George P., minister to 
Italy, 237. 

Marye's Heights, storming of, 245. 

Massachusetts, gives the "equiv- 
alent lands " to Connecticut, 
13, n.; votes to build blockhouse, 
13, 22; votes to survey military 
road, 42 ; western boundary of, 
67 ; settlers from, 86 ; Committee 
of Safety, 91 ; claims Vermont 
territory, 128. 
Massachusetts Court Records, ex- 
tract from, 13. 
Mattis, Dinah, freed from slavery, 
234- 



McClellan, General, 242, 243, 245. 

Melvin, Captain E., miUtary ex- 
pedition of, 40-41. 

Memorial of people of St. Albans, 
185. 

Memphremagog, Rogers at Lake, 
32, 35> 135- 

Merino sheep, importation of, 213. 

Middlebury, cotton factory at, 148; 
marble quarry at, 148. 

Middlebury College, incorporated, 
155; graduates of, 155, 229; 
students drill for Civil War, 238. 

Middlebury Female Seminary, 229. 

Military campaigns of 1775, ^77^^ 
1777, 96. 

Military road, surveyed by order 
of Massachusetts, 42 ; com- 
pleted in 1759, 42; course of, 
42 ; illustration of, 43. 

Mills, grist, 53, 55, 58 ; saw, 58, 59 ; 
fulling, 142; corn, at Windsor, 
146; carding, 152-153. 

Ministers, character of early, 63, 
165. 

Molly Stark cannon, illustration 
of, 106. 

Money, scarcity of, 125; issue of 
paper, 157-158; copper, coined, 
159; counterfeit, 157. 

Montreal, visited by Cartier, 2 ; 
French stronghold in Canada, 
17; expeditions from, against 
English, 17; becomes a market 
for settlers, 150, 168, 171. 

Monument marking Stark's camp- 
ing ground, 99. 

Moose, 144, 165. 

Morey, Samuel, inventor of steam- 
boat, 148. 



320 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



Morrill, Justin S., Senator, work 
for education, 230. 

Mortars and pestles, Indian manu- 
facture of, 8. 

Morton, Levi P., birthplace of, 
illustration of, 219. 

Mountain ranges, 273. 

Navigation, sailing vessels, 149; 
steamers, 148-149; steamers on 
the Connecticut River, 219-220. 

Navy yards on Lake Champlain, 

95- 

Newbury meadows, 22 ; settlement 
of, 50; fort at, during Revolu- 
tion, 106 ; project to attack, 108 ; 
aqueduct at, 146; church at, 
146; seminary at, 268; illustra- 
tion of seminary, facing page 
230. 

New Connecticut, name first given 
to state of Vermont, 116. 

New England, plan of British cam- 
paign against, 97. 

New Hampshire, western bound- 
ary of, ill-defined, 67 ; early map 
of, 69. 

New Hampshire Grants, contro- 
versy over jurisdiction and land 
titles of, 67-84 ; two regiments 
furnished by, 96; position of, 
not revolutionary, 81 ; organiza- 
tion forced upon, by controversy 
with New York, 81-83. 

Newspapers, first in state, 156; at 
Bennington, Windsor, Rutland, 

157- 
New York, taken by English, 14; 
protest of Governor Clinton, 
67 ; boundary of, declared by 



king, 68 ; proclamation concern- 
ing grants, 70 ; surveys disputed 
territory, 72 ; forbidden to make 
further grants, 73 ; governors of, 
disobey the order, 73 ; court de- 
bars settlers' evidence, 75; at- 
tempts to execute writs, 76 ; met 
by armed resistance, 77 ; com- 
promise effected, 135; $30,000 
indemnity paid to, 135; extent 
of land grants in Vermont, with 
fees, 296. 

New York Tribune, 244. 

Northampton, Mass., New York 
officers imprisoned at, 88. 

Norwich University, 230. 

Nulhegan River, Indian route, 18. 

Ogden, Captain, companion of 
Rogers, 31, ^T)- 

Order in Council, of 1764, 68; of 
1 767, extract from, 66 ; effect of, 
73; ignored by New^ York, 73. 

Orwell, salt spring at, 146. 

Otter Creek, Indian road follow- 
ing, 19; English scout posted 
at the mouth of, 24 ; mentioned 
in James Cross's journal, 40 ; 
followed by Melvin, 41 ; military 
road follows, 42; American 
fleet burned at mouth of, 96 ; 
English attempt to enter, 176. 

Palmer, Governor, house, 162. 
Paper money, in colonies, 157; in 

Vermont, 158; during Civil 

War, 256. 
Parkman, historian, 35. 
Passumpsic Turnpike Company, 

164. 



INDEX 



321 



Passumpsic Valley, settlers enter, 
166. 

Pastoral life from 181 2 to Civil 
War, 196-210. 

Patterns of woven cloths, 207. 

Pawlet, educational society at, 1 55. 

Peacham, fort at, during Revolu- 
tion, 106; academy at, 268. 

Pearlash, 63; marketed in Que- 
bec, 168, 171. 

Penn, William, frame of govern- 
ment of, 119, n. 

Pestles, stone, Indian manufacture 
of, 8. 

Petersburg, battle of, 248 ; siege of, 
248-249. 

Phelps, Benajah, witness of battle 
of Plattsburg Bay, 179. 

Phelps, Noah, spy at Ticonder- 
oga, 92. 

Pines to be saved for royal navy, 
35' 146. 

Pingree, Samuel E., leads charge 
at Lee's Mill, 242. 

Pipes, Indian, 10. 

Plattsburg, barracks destroyed at, 
175; American forces assemble 
at, 176; battle of, 177, 178, 180- 
181 ; old print of, 177. 

Plows, iron, introduced, 216. 

Plumping-mill, 55. 

Points, arrow and spear, 8; illus- 
trations of, 7, 8, 9. 

Politics, of early settlers, 65; in- 
terplay of local and federal, 

139- 
Poor debtors, 125; legislation for, 

126. 
Population, movement of, 212; 

slight growth of, 257; by 



decades, 299; by counties, 300; 
by towns, 301-304. 

Portland, market at, 151. 

Post offices, early establishment 
of, 166; routes, 166. 

Postage, rates of, how paid, 166. 

Potash. See Ashes, Asheries, 
Pearlash, Salts. 

Pots and jars, fragments of, 10. 

Pottery, aboriginal, 8, 10 ; illustra- 
tion of, 9. 

Prehistoric implements, illustra- 
tions of, 7, 8, 9. 

Presidential campaign, Adams 
versus Jackson, 235. 

Prices during Civil War, 255. 

Printing, first office established at 
Westminster, 156; first press in 
America, illustration of, 156. 

Quebec, stronghold of French, 17; 
Quebec bill, 86; attack on, 94; 
lumber trade to, 149-150; mar- 
ket for pearlash at, 168, 171. 

Rafts of lumber, 150. 

Railroads, agitation for, 220-221; 
incorporation of, 220; begin- 
ning of, 220; effect of, on rural 
communities, 221. 

Red Sandrock Mountains, 275. 

Reels, illustrations of, 151. 

Religious condition of early com- 
munities, 63. 

Resourcefulness of early farmers, 
192-194. 

Reward offered for Indians, 34; 
for Ethan Allen, 80; for Re- 
member Baker, 81. 

Richford, Indians visit, 169. 



322 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



Rivers of Vermont, 275-276. 

Roads, early building of, 45, 64; 
through Irasburg, 168; stage 
roads, 211. See also Military 
road and Hazen road. 

Robinson, Rowland, illustration 
of, 272. 

Rogers, Robert, destroys Indian 
village, 2 1 , 30-34 ; extracts from 
journal of, 31. 

Round Island, Rogers's party at, 32. 

Routes, Indian, across Vermont, 
18-19. 

Rouville, Hertel de, leader of raid 
on Deerfield, 19, 21. 

Royalton, raid on, 108, 109. 

Rutland, early oil mill, brewery, 
and hat factory at, 146; news- 
paper established at, 157. 

Ryegate, 38 ; settledby Scotch, 165. 

Salts, 147, 165, 168. 

Saranac River, 177. 

Saratoga, The, 177. 

Savage's Station, battle of, 242. 

Sawmills, 258, 259. 

Schools, first established, 61, 62; 
academies and grammar, previ- 
ous to 1800, 146, 147. 

Schuyler, General, opposition of, 
to Burgoyne's advance, 98. 

Scotch, farming companies of, 164, 
165; settlers in Caledonia 
County, 164-165; character of, 
165. 

Scouting parties, records of, 28-29, 
34; service of, 35-37- 

Season of 18 16, failure of crops, 
197-199. 

Senators in Congress, 298. 



Settlement of new land, 147 ; of 
northern Vermont after the 
Revolution, 164. 

Settlements, extent of, in 1760, 46; 
conditions of life in, 51-65; ex- 
tent of, in 1777, 106. 

Settlers, attitude of, toward New 
York, 71, 72, 75; titles of, ques- 
tioned, 71 ; menaced by Bur- 
goyne's invasion, 108-109; treat- 
ment of Tories, 109. 

Sheep raising, 213-215. 

Skenesboro, 95, 98; capture of 
American galleys near, 99. 

Slate quarrying, 224. 

Slavery, effect of, on cotton in- 
dustry, 1 54 ; growth of, becomes 
national issue, 231-232. 

Smuggling, 181-191 ; cause of, 182, 
183; effect of embargo on, 182- 

183. 

Social, conditions in early settle- 
ments, 51-65; disturbances fol- 
lowing Revolution, 123-126. 

Society, democracy of, in early 
period, 51 ; communal organiza- 
tion of, 58. 

Soldiers' Home, 251. 

Sorel River, 169. 

Spades, flint and homstone, 10. 

Spanish money in Vermont, 158. 

Spanish War, 270-271. 

Spaulding, Lieutenant, alleged 
treason of, imprisonment and 
release of, 86. 

Spinning, wheel, illustration of, 
152; jennies, 154; women's 
work, 206. 

Spooner''s Vermont Journal, 184. 

Spottsylvania, battle of, 248. 



INDEX 



323 



St. Albans, reply of, to Jefferson, 
185 ; raid on, 254. 

St. Anne, French fort at, 23. 

St. Armand, English force cap- 
tured at, 175. 

St. Clair, plans of, 98 ; march to 
Castleton, 99. 

St. Francis Indians, 5 ; destruction 
of, by Rogers, 30-33. 

St. Francis River, Indian route on, 
18. 

St. John's, sloop captured at, 93 ; 
navy yard at, 95. 

St. Johnsbury, market for northern 
towns, 167. 

St. Regis, smuggling to, 191. 

Stanstead, smuggled goods bought 
at, 187 ; party from, sets fire to 
Derby, 187. 

Stark, John, captured by Indians, 
^2 ; cuts out military road, 42 
portrait of, 100; career of, 102 
tactics of, at Bennington, 102 
military services of, 105; promo- 
tion of, 105. 

State house at Montpelier, 163. 

State prison, 186. 

Steam navigation, 148; Samuel 
Morey's invention, 148 ; Fulton, 
148; on Lake Champlain, 183. 

Stewart, P. P., inventor, 225. 

Stuyvesant, Peter, surrenders New 
Amsterdam, 14. 

Sugar making, Indian mode of, 56 ; 
early settlers' mode of, 200, 201 ; 
old utensils of, illustrated, 200. 

Sunday old-time services, 203-204 ; 
music at, 203-204. 

Superior, Lake, copper from, used 
by Indians, 10. 



Superintendent of education, of- 
fice created, 228 ; general super- 
vision exercised by, 265 ; circu- 
lars of educational information, 
265. 

Surveyors sent to the New Hamp- 
shire Grants from New York, 
72. 

Swanton, Indian relics of, 6 ; an- 
cient burial ground near, 6 ; In- 
dian village near, 8. 

Swifts, illustration of, 153. 

Swine pastured in woods, 58. 

Taconic Mountains, 274. 

Tanneries in 18 10, 142. 

Tariff of 1828, effect of, on wool 

growing, 214. 
Tavern, typical old, illustration of, 

64 ; old turnpike, illustration of, 

211. 
Taxes, worked out, paid in kind, 

53- 

Teachers, in first schools, 62 ; first 
school for training of, 1 55 ; asso- 
ciation of, organized, 229 ; insti- 
tutes held for, 265. 

Ten Eyck, sheriff, repelled at 
Breakenridge's farm, 77. 

Ticonderoga, evacuation of, by 
French, 29 ; captured by Green 
Mountain Boys, 91-93; results 
of capture of, 94 ; threatened by 
Carleton, 96; recaptured by 
Burgoyne, 98. 

Titles annulled in the New Hamp- 
shire Grants, 71. 

Tolls, 53, 56 ; tollgate, 146. 

Topics for research and review, 
282-285. 



324 



HISTORY OF VERMONT 



Tories, raids of, 108-109; treat- 
ment of, 109. 
Towns, decline of hill, 211; list 

of, with population, 301-304. 
Tracy, M. de, builds forts, 22-23. 
Transition, periods of, 196; at 

middle of last century, 210-21 1. 
Transportation, in colonial epoch, 

141; by canal, 217; effects of 

railroads on, 221. 
Trees, 35. 

Trial at Albany, 75. 
Troy, N.Y., markets at, 144, 145. 
Troy, Vt., visited by Indians in 

1799, 168. 
Turnpikes, 162-163; Passumpsic 

Turnpike Company, 164. 

Underhill, skirmish with smugglers 

at, 189. 
Unions, East and West, 127-130, 

134, 137- 
University of Vermont, incor- 
porated in 1791, 155; during 
War of 181 2, 155; graduates 
of, 155, 229-230, 238. 

Valleys, settled later than hills, 
211. 

Vermont, discovery of, events con- 
temporaneous with, 2; traversed 
by Indian war parties, 1 5 ; coun- 
ties of, under New York, 74 ; 
participation of, in Revolution, 
90-1 10 ; advantage to, from Rev- 
olution, 109-111, 114; declares 
her independence, 1 1 1 , 115, 117- 
119; self-government of, 112; 
constitutional conventions of, 
1 1 3-1 17, ii9n. ; an independent 



republic, 120-139; internal con- 
ditions from 1777 to 1 79 1, 120- 
1 26 ; flag of, illustration of, 121; 
life in, during Revolution, 121- 
1 22 ; union with New Hampshire 
towns, 127 ; controversy of, with 
New Hampshire, 127-130; ne- 
gotiations with the British, 1 30- 

133, 137 ; East and West unions 
dissolved, 134; admission of, 

134, 135; settles New York 
claim, 135; latitude, longitude, 
length, width, area, 273. 

Vermont Gazette, 125, 156. 
Versatility of early settlers, 52, 
192-194. 

Walloomsac Valley, 47. 

Warm, Captain de, builds fort at 
Chimney Point, 24. 

Warner, Seth, 92 ; captures Crown 
Point, 93 ; commander of regi- 
ment, 94 ; service of, in Canada, 
94 ; commands rear guard at 
Hubbardton, 99 ; service of, at 
Bennington, 102, 104. 

War of 1812, 172-191 ; situation 
of northern Vermont in, 173- 
174; preparation for, in Cham- 
plain Valley, 174; national re- 
verses, 1 74 ; first naval action on 
Lake Champlain, 175 ; compari- 
son of English and American 
fleets, 181 ; retreat of British 
from Plattsburg, 181. 

Washington, D.C., fighting in vicin- 
ity of, by Vermont troops, 240. 

Washington, George, letter from, 
on conditions in Vermont, 133. 

Water courses, utility of, 43. 



INDEX 



325 



Weaving, at home, 151 ; women's 
work, 206; professional weav- 
ers, 207. 

Wentworth, Governor Benning, 
66 ; illustration of, 67 ; grants 
made by, 47, 67, 68, 70. 

Westminster, assembly at, 88 ; 
constitutional conventions at, 
114, 115; printing office at, 
156. 

"Westminster Massacre," 84-89. 

Westward movement, 256. 

Weybridge, raid on, 108. 

Wheat, raising, 145; market at 
New York for, 145; market at 
Montreal for, 151. 

Whisky distilleries in i8ro, 141. 

Whitcomb, Lieutenant, 108. 



Whitelaw, General, letter of, 38. 

Whitney, Eli, 153. 

Wilderness, battle of, 248. 

Williams, Dr., of Rutland, 156. 

Windsor, constitutional conven- 
tions at, 116-117; corn mill at, 
146; early newspaper at, 157. 

Winooski River, Indian route, 19; 
smugglers in the, 186. 

Witherspoon, Rev. John, sells land 
in Ryegate, 165. 

Women, status of, in early com- 
munities, 60-61. 

Wool, 151; carding of, 152; in 
1810, 153; cards, illustrations 
of, 150, 207; prices of, 214. 

Wooster, commander of American 
army in Canada, 94. 



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